268 Mr. E. Blytli on the Calcutta ' Adjutant.' 



speciraeu of Colymbus, but I find I cannot reconcile it with my 

 description of C. glacialis. Here is a note of the bird they have 

 shot in Amoy harbour : — 



Length 25 in., wing \l^. Bill along ridge 1^, along edge 

 of lower mandible 3^. Tarse 3 in. ; 1st toe 2-j^ in., 2nd 2^, 

 3rd 2|, 4th i. 



Tarsus on the inward surface, surface of the toes, and median 

 line of webs pale bluish grey variegated with purplish black, 

 which forms the pervading colour of the outward side of the 

 tarse and the under surface of the feet. Bill flesh-colour with 

 blackish-brown culmen. The upper head and neck are grey ; 

 and the back and scapulars spotted with white on a greenish- 

 black ground. All the under parts are jmre white. Now 

 Schlegel, I find, puts down the Colymbus that winters at Japan 

 as the C. ardicus ; but this assuredly does not answer that species. 

 Is our bird the C. adamsii^, not long since described by 

 G. R. Gray ? or is it a species with which the Editor of ' The 

 Ibis ' is not acquainted ? 



Yours, &c., Robert Swinhoe. 



British Consulate, Amoy, February 20tli, 1861. 



XXVI. — Note on the Calcutta 'Adjutant' {Leptoptilus ai-gala). 



Bv Edward Blyth, Curator of the Asiatic Society's Museum, 



Calcutta. 

 In ' Chambers's Journal ' for January of the current year, p. 40, 

 I observe an article entitled "The Calcutta iVdjutaut, or Hur- 

 ghila of the natives of Bengal," of which term its technical spe- 

 cific appellation is of course a corruption. It contains a deal of 

 nonsense, which I forthwith proceed to criticise and correct. 



We are told, in the fourth paragraph, that these gaunt birds 

 *' have a long, straight, broad bill, much depressed, the uppei- man- 

 dible flattened, and terminated by a very strong hook [!] ; the 

 lower formed by two bony branches, which are flexible, and united 

 at the tip ; from these branches are suspended a naked skin, in 



* C. udamsii is the Pacific form of C glacialis, and generally resembles 

 the latter, except in its larger yellowish-white bill. See Mr. Gray's de- 

 scription (P. Z. S. 1859, p. 167)- It is probable that Mr. Swinhoe's bird 

 may be C. udamsii in immature plumage. — Ed. 



