Br Adam on the Ciconia Argala, or Adjutant Bird. 3^9 



giant among quadrupeds, the elephant. Legs long and strong ; 

 breadth at the largest diameter three inches six tenths. Feet 

 walkers composed of three toes before, and one behind, the 

 outermost having five joints^ the second/our, the third three, and 

 the posterior two ; claws short, strong, blunt ; the colour of the 

 neck, and bag depending from it, a bright orange (Dutch 

 orange, Werner). The bag, which constitutes one of the prin- 

 cipal characters of this bird, is not directly connected with the 

 gullet nor the trachea, but enters by a small aperture into the 

 left side of the pharynx or mouth, and is evidently not intended 

 as a receptacle for food. It is composed of two coats, an inner 

 membranous one, and the outer orange-coloured skin : within 

 this bag nothing is found but air and saliva. The gullet is 

 ample, and folded into many longitudinal plicae, increasing in 

 number and size as they approach the cardiac orifice. The sto- 

 mach is very large, compared with the size of the other viscera, 

 and fills up the whole of the abdomen from the ribs to the vent ; 

 it is seen immediately on laying open the cavity, in the shape of 

 an urinal, and covered with a fatty membrane. The stomach 

 consists of two parts, which, from their structure, appear to per- 

 form separate functions. The upper portion is of a glandular 

 structure; the lower muscular. The former is small, compared 

 with the latter, very narrow, and of an oblong figure. Inte- 

 riorly it is furnished with a glandular apparatus, similar to what 

 I have observed in some other fowls : a small contraction marks 

 the division between these two, and from this line the structure 

 becomes very different, feeling harder to the finger, and con- 

 sisting of muscle and tendon of great thickness at some points. 

 The tendon is in the centre of the flattened circle, and the 

 muscle sweeps all round the margin. The stomach in the spe- 

 cimen was distended with earth, hair, and bones. The gut is a 

 narrow tube of considerable length, lying immediately behind 

 the stomach, and occupying but a small part of the general ca- 

 vity. The liver of a dirty brick colour, pahsh, and different 

 from those of other fowls which I have hitherto examined ; 

 heart of a proportional size, and very firm. 



The specimen from which this description was taken, was 

 killed by me on the banks of the Hoogly, and appeared to be 

 a full grown male bird. 



