HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-G OSSIP. 



long ago, I had the opportunity of assuring myself 

 ihsitAreuaria nliginosa, one of our very rarest plants, 

 still existed in tliis its only station in Britain, at 

 the head of a small streamlet on the western edge 

 of the limestone plateau; and in a swamp and else- 

 where near it, and ilovvering abundantly, the pretty 

 Thalidruni alpimm,— this Teesdale valley also its 

 only station in England. 



In conclusion I may say that Sclieuchzeria paliis- 

 tm, which was formerly found on Tliorne Moor, in 

 South Yorkshire, is quite extinct now in this station ; 

 and two other rare plants, Latkyrus palustris and 

 Peucedamcm palustre, which grew on the borders of 

 the swampy moor, are very nearly so,— a result due 

 to drainage lately carried out on a large scale. In 

 1870, when I visited it, huge dykes had been cut 

 in all directions across the Moss ; the peat piled in 

 great heaps, the surface turned with the plough, 

 and the whole of this extensive waste being rapidly 

 "reclaimed" by some ruthless foe to botany; 

 though perhaps some will agree with Mr. Grindon, 

 who, in his " Eield and Garden Botany," comment- 

 ing upon the disappearance of Lobelia tirens (since 

 re-discovered, I am informed, by the Hon. Mr. 

 Warren) from Axminster Heath, within the last 

 few years, remarks— "but the right onward furrow 

 of a generous utility is better than the preservation 

 of a thousand wild Lobelias " ! 



E. AuNOLD Lees, F.L.S., L.R.C.P. Lond- 



Hartlepool, Durham. 



HOW I TRIED TO POISON AN ADJUTANT. 



" \\THAT a villain !" I can fancy escapes involun- 

 » » tarily from my reader as he sees the head- 

 ing of this article ; " surely the man was tried for 

 attempted manslaughter ! " 



No, my friend, I was not " tried," nor did I seek 

 to make away with our Adjutant, for he was a very 

 good fellow; but I wanted one of those odd, 

 quaint-looking birds that haunt the purlieus of Cal- 

 cutta, yclept the Scavenger-bird, or, as he is better 

 known by his more common name, the " Adjutant " 

 {Leptoptilos argala) ; and as his person is sacred to 

 the natives, I dared not openly shoot or destroy one, 

 although, wishing to have a good specimen, I admit 

 that I did surreptitiously try the effect of poison, 

 with what success shall be seen. 



A vulgar, disgusting-looking fellow is this same 

 bird. How knowing he looks as he stands on one 

 leg, which is clasped with the other foot above the 

 knee, and eyes you askance, like a knowing old file, 

 as you pass near him ; but if you approach too near 

 he stalks stealthily away with a sidelong glance and 

 shuffling step, till he conceives himself to be at a 

 safe distance, when he again settles down into a 

 dreamy, dozy state of existence. 



Perched on a housetop, he stands like a sentinel, 



until a whiff of carrion reminds him of a savoury 

 morsel below, when he spreads his wings and 

 swoops to the spot, clapping his bill together with 

 a noise that resounds as he passes overhead. 



The bird stands from four to five feet high when 

 erect, and its bare, red, fleshy neck gives it the 

 appearance of what it naturally is, an obscene, 

 carrion-loving feeder. 



The legs are long and slender, like those of the 

 crane, of which species he is a member ; the body 

 oval, with white breast and dark-coloured back and 

 wings. The bill is from twelve to sixteen inches in 

 length, is broad at the base, with very powerful 

 leverage, and tapering away to a point. I have 

 seen one of these birds take a shin-bone of beef 

 endwise in his bill, raise his head in the air, and 

 swallow it whole at a gulp ! 



He is a most useful member of society in the 

 tropics, quickly clearing by day all the offal and 

 offensive matter not devoured by the troops of 

 howling jackals by night. 



But to return to my endeavours to circumvent 

 one of these gentlemen. I was always partial to 

 taxidermy, and had long been on the look-out for 

 one oi\ those huge bats called Elyiug-foxes {T?te- 

 ropus Javanicus), which cross over the Hooghly 

 from the Howra side of Calcutta regularly as sun- 

 down, and go — who knows where ! Often after a 

 blazing hot day, the reminiscence of which alone 

 almost brings back the prickly heat, have I lain 

 about sunset on the smooth glacis, watching these 

 bats in their flight as they came like specks from 

 the opposite shore ; first one or two, then a few 

 more, and "gradually increasing in numbers until 

 the sky would be dense with them, when they again 

 straggled into a rear-guard of a few, and would be 

 gone. They were always out of gunshot, but at 

 last I succeeded in getting one from a native, and 

 in the cool of the following morning sat in my 

 verandah and proceeded to operate upon him. I 

 had just cleared the body from the skin, when our 

 Adjutant, who had his quarters next to mine, made 

 his appearance. " I should like to get one of my 

 namesakes," said he, pointing to a posse of six or 

 seven of them perched on a wall across the square, 

 on the look-out for what might be thrown to them 

 from the cook-houses. "The very thought that 

 has often struck me," said I; "but you know, my 

 dear fellow, we dare not shoot one." "No, but 

 don't you think some of this stuff you have here 

 would do the business?" "By Jove, the very 

 thing ! " The body of the bat was soon stuffed with 

 a decent quantity of arsenical paste and corrosive 

 sublimate, enough to kill about twenty men ; a good 

 swing with a one, two, and three, and out it flew into 

 the middle of the square. Down swooped the birds, 

 their bills clattering like so many powerful casta- 

 nets, and the poisoned carcass was in a twinkling 

 poised on the bill of the foremost, and as quickly 



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