The INDIAN SCISSOR-BILL (_Rhynchops orientalis_) is white upon the forehead, face, tail, under side of the body, and upon the points of the larger wing-covers; the top of the head, back of neck, and mantle are blackish brown; the eyes are dark brown, the beak and feet coral-red. The length of this species is seventeen inches, its breadth forty-two inches, length of wing thirteen inches, and of tail two inches and a half. The Scissor-bill has frequently come under our notice, while travelling along the banks of the Middle and Upper Nile. This bird may occasionally be seen flying by day if it has been disturbed; but it usually remains motionless upon sandbanks from morning to evening, generally lying flat upon its belly, more rarely standing up on its little feeble feet; while thus reposing, it is but seldom that it makes any noise or exhibits the slightest activity. As the sun sets, however, it begins to be more lively, moves about, stretches itself, raises its wings, hops backwards and forwards, and utters its peculiar cry; but it is only as night approaches that it flies away in search of food. Its movements are then in exact accordance with the peculiar structure of its beak. With long strokes of its wings, it glides noiselessly along close to the water, from time to time dipping its lower mandible beneath the surface and keeping it there for a minute or two at a time, ploughing, as it were, the top of the river, with its strangely-shaped under jaw, and skimming the water. In this manner it manages to collect great numbers of the insects, which upon the banks of the Nile, at least, constitute its principal food. Whether it also eats small molluscs, more particularly bivalves, and is skilful in opening them with its beak, we cannot say, but that this is the case with some of its congeners seems to be pretty well established. Lesson states that he saw an American Scissor-bill seat itself quietly down near some bivalve shell-fish left by the tide and wait patiently till they opened their valves, when it inserted its beak between the separated shells, till the occupant again closed its valves and thus laid hold upon the beak; he then flew away with it to a neighbouring stone and beat the shell to pieces. Tschüdi relates the same circumstance, but whether from his own observation or from Lesson's narrative we do not know. At present we entertain some doubts of the accuracy of the observations alluded to. The flight of the Scissor-bill is light and beautiful, but somewhat peculiar, inasmuch as the bird is obliged to raise its wings very high in order to prevent the tips from striking the water; its proportionately long neck enables it to do this, allowing it to keep its body at the distance of about an inch from the surface, while a considerable portion of its beak is held under water. Its hunting ground seems to extend for about the space of a mile up and down the stream. In Central Africa it