cies its head was of a dirty white, with a hood, or crest, of a spongy substance, covered with down on the back of it: the bill of a bright orange colour, strongly hooked, and the space under the orbit of the eye, and the whole of the neck bare and of a light flesh colour. It had a large ruff of dark feathers round the base of the neck: and the whole of the upper part of the body was of a cinereous brown colour.
The ostrich (sogun) is found in the low districts north of Abyssinia, but very rarely within the actual limits of the country. Herns of various species, are common in the marshy grounds;[1] one species of which (Feras Shcitan, or the devil's horse,) was noticed by Jerome Lobo; but his description was so vague, that it was difficult to fix upon the class of birds to which it belonged. The Abyssinian horn-bill, called Abba Gumba in Tigré, and Erkoom in Ambaric, frequents the cultivated lands of Tigré, and seems to be useful in destroying the grubs, worms, and wild bulbs, with which the land abounds. This bird builds its nest in the low branches of lofty trees, and is often seen sitting there in a kind of solitary independence. The Abba Gumba, as well as many of the other birds found in Abyssinia, also frequents the opposite coast of the continent; and some tolerably fine specimens of it are to be seen in Mr. Bullock's Museum, which were brought from Senegal. A large and handsome species of bustard, which I shot on the coast of Abyssinia, the skin of which I afterwards brought to England, appears likewise to be the same as that found in the neighbourhood of the river Gambia.
The Egyptian goose, and a species of duck, allied to the Anas Lybica are occasionally met with,[2] and several other species of water fowl; the most common of which is the Derho-mai, literally water-fowl, a species of bittern, of which a drawing is to be found in Dapper's Description des Isles de l'Archipel. Guinea fowls, red-legged partridges, quails, snipes, lapwings, larks, and doves, abound throughout the whole country. The natives are so expert in the use of the matchlock, that they constantly kill the two former birds with a single ball; so that during our whole stay in the country, we were constantly supplied with them, as well as with different kinds of venison; the Ras always sending me a share of those which were brought in by his followers.
In the course of my last journey I made a collection of the rarer birds found in the country, which I was fortunate enough to bring
- ↑ Hern, killed on the 19th of August on the plain of Serawé. Crown of head black; beak of an orange colour; wings at the tip of a glossy black, twenty-four feathers in each; under the pinions bare, and bright red, as in the flamingo: tail forked, and four black feathers on each side, and eight white ones in the centre; legs black; outside of thighs black: rest of the bird white; this bird when erect was nearly four feet high.
- ↑ Another species of duck killed at Abha: upper mandible of beak light grey, edged with red; top of head brownish grey; irides yellow; body speckled somewhat like that of a guinea-fowl, whiter on the lower parts, and yellower on the back; scapular feathers dark umber-brown; round the eye and upper part of neck rusty iron colour; legs bright red; wings twelve long black feathers, twelve glossy blue, and four hinder ones of yellowish brown; secondary feathers black; tertials seventeen white, with a black stripe across them, rump and upper part of body black: under part yellowish.
