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Birfl.s of Gambia. 
a rule when out in the hush they are pretty wary birds, and not 
easy to approach, though in the towns, relying on the protection 
always accorded them, they are fearless of man. 
After a taeal or when waiting for one, a Maraliout will sfand 
for hours ahsolutelj- still with legs apart, hunched back and head 
tucked down between the shoulders, while the beak is pointed straight 
at his toes, a picture of solemn meditation. At another time the 
position will he varied, the bird will stand on one leg with thrown 
back head and "beak pointing vertically upwards and opened from 
time to time into a long-drawn yawn of sheer laziness or repletion. 
In fact nearly all a Marabout's attitudes and movements on the 
ground arc grotesque, as indeed is his general appearance. A most 
comical sight is the " showing off " of one of these birds; he puffs 
out his throat pouch, raises his wings, and walks or hops solemnly 
round ,the object of his worship with out-stretched neck and an 
occasional peck at the ground at his or her feet. 
Marahouts make good yard-pets and act as excellent scav- 
engers for a compound, as nothing comes amiss to them, from mixed 
biscuits to chicken heads and feet and other worse forms of oPFal. 
If he has his wing feathers a tame one will generally roost at 
night on the highest hut in the immediate neighhourhood or on some 
bare tree, but all day, he is about the yard, generally pretty near 
the kitchen. 
Native names are Jimmu (Mandinffo), Jimmi and Ngedj 
(Joloff). 
Description. The head and neck are 'bare (or partially covered 
with scanty down) and coloured an unwholesome-looking pink mottled 
with brown and yellow, while from the front of the lower part of 
the latter hangs a pink pouch of skin, which can be dilated with 
air when the 'bird wills. The wings and upper parts are grey 
with "black flights, the under parts white, the under tail-coverts 
being absolutely pure white and forming the beautiful tiift of downy 
plumen commonly known as " Mara'bou feathers." The iris is 
brown, the bill greenish yellow, the legs black. 
Tseudolanlalus ibis. WOOD-IBIS. 
Range. Tropical Africa. Madagascar. (H.L.) 
These distinctly handsome 'birds are fairly common in the 
Gam'bia, and like the Marabouts are also local in their breeding 
places. Like them, too, they nest in trees in the nativie towns 
in company with Vultures, Pelicans, and Crows, hut I do not know 
any place where 'both Wood Ibises and Marabouts nest together! 
Thosi! 'birds, whose Mandingo name is " Kaminudo," spend the day 
fishing in the swamps or on the river, hut return at nightfall to 
their urban roosting places, flying homewards in small oarties as 
the sun goes down. Their nests are comparatively large collections 
of sticks, and coarse grasses, and there are usually a great many 
in one tree, not merely one or at most three or four as is commonly 
the case with Marabouts, An adult Wood Ibis is a beautifully 
