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on Lake Tanganyika the larger P. roseus (common flamingo) is present. 
Herons and storks are well represented. The father of them all—or at any 
rate the bird which amongst existing forms comes nearest to the common 
ancestor of storks and herons—the Scopus umbretta or Tufted Umbre, is 
exceedingly common and is a great scavenger. This bird is a rich umber- 
brown almost without variation except that the tail is dirty white barred with 
dark brown and the pinions are nearly black. But on the mature bird, especially 
on the male, a fine purplish gloss lights up the dull brown and gives it rather a 
handsome colour. These Umbres are great scavengers ; they are utterly uneat¬ 
able and consequently are not much molested, becoming therefore far from 
shy. They are easily tamed and make rather amusing pets except for their 
harsh cry. The extraordinary Goliath heron—perhaps the biggest of all the 
true herons and a bird of very beautiful coloration (red-fawn, blue-grey, white, 
black, with green skin round the eyes and a beak which is mottled black and 
green) is present on every big river and lake. In the breeding season the 
male develops two sets of whitish plumes hanging down perpendicularly from 
the stomach and looking somewhat like the long muslin appendages of shirt 
fronts or cravats of the last century. The common heron of Europe is also met 
with. There are further the purple heron, the small cream-coloured squacco 
heron, the large, middle sized, and small egrets, the tiny buff-backed egret, 
several night herons and at least two bitterns. The egrets are common and 
beautiful sights on the rivers. The large species is seen singly or in pairs, but 
the little egrets and the still smaller bulbulcus are met with in large flocks. 
The last named bird is so little molested by the natives that it allows of a 
very near approach. These snow-white herons with their lace-like plumes over 
the wing are objects which never fail to excite my admiration. Towards the 
evening a low tree by the river bank will be a snow-white mass where these 
birds are roosting in a flock, and a flight of them against a background of 
dark forest and grey water makes a telling spectacle. 
As regards storks: there is of course that huge scavenger the bold-headed 
Adjutant or Marabu ( Leptoptilus). We have also the exceedingly handsome 
African Jabiru or Saddle-bill ( Mycterin senegalensis ) which I have illustrated in 
Chapter I. 1 and which is a rare bird only met with occasionally and generally in 
pairs, whereas the Adjutant is usually seen in large flocks especially if there is 
carrion about. It is probable that we also have the white-bellied stork ( Ciconia 
abdimia) though I have not procured specimens. The little black Anastomus 
(A. lamelligerus ) is very common along the rivers. It is an ugly bird with a 
beak the mandibles of which are bowed like the jaws of a whalebone whale, 
and except at the tip have a gap between the upper and lower mandibles, the 
edges of which are serrated. The general colour of this bird is black. On 
the stomach and thighs the ends of the feathers become horny and curled, 
somewhat in appearance like the crest of a Curassow. 
Of Ibises we have the handsome Sacred ibis and the gorgeous Hagedash ; 
also the Glossy ibis. The Hagedash ibis when immature is a dull brown but the 
adult bird is one mass of iridescent green, sea-blue and bronze-red. Unlike the 
egret the ibis is remarkably good eating. 
Probably two species of cormorant are found, one a rather large bird, dark 
slate-colour with a white throat; the other the small African cormorant which 
is present in enormous numbers on the larger rivers and on the lakes—a bird 
uninteresting in appearance and coloration and quite useless for food, besides 
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