Upon the occiput the feathers are elongated and form a small crest. The body is robust and covered upon the back with slate-colored feathers bordered with ashen gray. Upon the breast the feathers are lanceolate, and marked with a dark median stripe. Finally, the lower parts, abdomen, sides, and thighs, are pale gray, and the remiges and retrices are black. According to Verreaux, the feathers of the under side of the tail are soft and decompounded, but at a distance they only recall the beautiful plumes of the adjutant. The well-developed wings indicate a bird of lofty flight, yet of all the bones of the limbs, anterior as well as posterior, the humerus alone is pneumatized. The strong feet terminate in four very long toes deprived at the interdigital membrane observed in most of the Ciconidae. The claws are powerful and but slightly curved, and that of the median toe is not pectinated as in the herons. The balaeniceps is met with only in or near water, but it prefers marshes to rivers. It is abundant upon the banks of the Nile only during the hot season which precedes the rains and when the entire interior is dried up. During the rest of the year it inhabits natural ponds and swamps, where the shallow water covers vast areas and presents numerous small islands, of easier access than the banks of the Nile, which always slope more or less abruptly into deep water. In such localities it is met with in pairs or in flocks of a hundred or more, seeking its food with tireless energy, or else standing immovable upon one leg, the neck curved and the head resting upon the shoulder. When disturbed, the birds fly just above the surface of the water and stop at a short distance. But when they are startled by the firing of a gun, they ascend to a great height, fly around in a circle and hover for a short time, and then descend upon the loftiest trees, where they remain until the enemy has gone. Water turtles, fish, frogs and lizards form the basis of their food. According to Petherick, they do not disdain dead animals, whose carcasses they disembowel with their powerful hooked beak. They pass the night upon the ground, upon trees and upon high rocks. As regards nest-making and egg-laying, opinions are most contradictory. According to Verreaux, the balaeniceps builds its nest of earth, vegetable debris, reeds, grass, etc., upon large trees. The female lays two eggs similar to those of the adjutant. It is quite difficult to reconcile this opinion with that of Petherick, who expresses himself as follows: "The balaeniceps lays in July and August, and chooses for that purpose the tall reeds or grasses that border the water or some small and slightly elevated island. They dig a hole in the ground, and the female deposits her eggs therein. I have found as many as twelve eggs in the same nest."