37 
Separated longitudinally, according to the natural division of 
the leaf, the segments of it are used by the natives to write on 
in lieu of paper. They trace the characters with an iron stile, 
by a series of punctures through the cuticle of the leaf, and 
render the writing legible by smearing it over with a compo- 
sition of lamp-black and cocoa-nut oil. 
“ There is a singular bird, of the Heron tribe, that fre- 
quents the environs of Calcutta during the rainy season, the 
Ardea dubia, I believe, of Linnzus. It stands five feet high. 
Its bill is eighteen inches long, triangular, tapering to a point, 
and roughened by the exfoliation of its substance; the eyes 
small, and of a pale blue colour. Its head and neck are 
covered with a few straggling black hairs instead of feathers, 
Its breast, belly, interscapulary region, greater wing-covers, 
and tertiary quill feathers, are ash-coloured; and its wings, 
back, and tail, dark blue. Its legs are white, and peculiarly 
long and slender. But what distinguishes it from all other 
birds, is a cylindrical membraneous pouch that depends from 
the base of the neck, while the upper part of it appears like a 
large puckered wen between the shoulders, It has the power 
of inflating or contracting this bag at pleasure., In the former 
state it measures eighteen inches in length, and about four 
inches in diameter. For what use this grotesque appendage 
serves the bird I never could learn, It is generally believed 
to be the crop, in which the bones, that constitute a great . 
proportion of its food, are macerated. "This opinion, how- 
ever, I cannot assent to, for though I watched many hundreds 
of them in the act of swallowing large bones, I never could 
trace the progress of one to the pouch. 
* These birds, which are known by the nickname of Adju- 
tants, from the peculiar solemnity, perhaps, of their strut, 
resort in myriads to Fort-William, where the large consump- - 
tion of beef and mutton yields them a copious supply of their 
favourite food. Every day at one o'clock, they regularly - 
take their stand in front of the barracks, and furnish a fund of 
amusement to the soldiers by their scrambling and quarrelling 
for the fragments that are tossed among them. The larger 
beef-bones occasion them some trouble in arranging their 
