254 



The Horn-bit,:,. 



Between the extremely beautiful, and the extremely ugly birds, we 

 meet with another class having superlative attributes — the extremely gro- 

 tesque. This class is well represented in India. The Great Hornbill 

 (Dic/wceros bicornis) and the Adjutant (Leptoptilus dubius) are birds which 

 would take prizes in any exhibition of oddities. The former is nearly 4^ 

 feet in length. The body is only 14 inches long, being an insignificant part 

 of the bird, a mere connecting link between the massive beak, and the 

 great loosely-inserted tail. The beak is nearly a foot in length, and is 

 rendered more conspicuous than it would otherwise be, by a structure 

 known as a casque. This is a horny excrescence, nearly as large as the bill, 

 which causes the bird to look as though it were wearing a hat, which it had 

 placed for a joke on its beak, rather than its head. The eye is red, and the 

 upper lip is fringed with eye lashes which add still further to the oddity 

 of the bird's appearance. The creature has an antediluvian air, and one 

 feels, when contemplating it, that its proper companions are the monsters 

 that lived in pre-historic times. The actions of the Hornbill are in keeping 

 with its appearance. Each morsel of food is tossed into the air and 

 caught in the bill preparatory to being swallowed. Mr. E. V. Lewis des- 

 cribes the Hornbill as the best short slip in the Zoological Gardens. Horn- 

 bills are the clowns of the forest. 



The Adjutant. 



Even more grotesque is the Adjutant. This is a Stork with an 

 enormous bill, a tiny head, and a long neck, all innocent of feathers. 

 From the front of the neck hangs a considerable pouch which the bird can 

 inflate at will. Round the base of the neck is a ruff of white feathers that 

 causes the bird to look as though it had donned a lady's feather boa. 



It is the habit of the Adjutant to stand with its head buried in its 

 shoulders, so that, when looked at from behind, it resemble a hunch- 

 backed, shrivelled-up old man wearing a grey swallow-tailed coat. It looks 

 still more ludicrous when it varies the monotony of life by kneeling down. 

 Its long shanks then stretch out before it, giving the impression that they 

 have been mistakenly inserted hind part foremost. Its movements partake 

 of the nature of a cake-walk. "For grotesque devilry of dancing," writes 

 Lock wood Kipling, " the Indian Adjutant beats creation. Don Quixote or 

 Malvolio was not half so solemn or mincing, and yet there is an abandon- 

 ment and lightness of step, a wild lift in each solemn prance which are 

 almost demoniacal. If it were possible for the most angular, tall, and 

 demure of elderly maiden ladies to take a great deal too much champagne 

 and then to give a lesson in ballet bancing, with occasional pauses of acute 

 sobriety, perhaps some faint idea might be conveyed of the peculiar quality 

 of the Adjutant's movements." If the Hornbill be the clown of the forest, 

 the Adjutant is the buffoon of the open plain. 



(To be continued). 



