6 JUNGLE FOLK 



of the hornbill are in keeping with its appearance. It 

 is the clown of the forest. 



Even more grotesque is the adjutant. This is a 

 stork with an enormous bill, a tiny head, and long neck, 

 both 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 resembles 

 a hunch-backed, shrivelled-up old man, wearing a grey 

 swallow-tailed coat. It looks still more ludicrous when 

 it varies the monotony of Hfe by kneeling down; its 

 long shanks are then stretched out before it, giving the 

 idea 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 

 Lockwood Kipling, " the Indian adjutant beats crea- 

 tion. Don Quixote or Malvolio were not half so solemn 

 or mincing, and yet there is an abandonment and hght- 

 ness 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 dancing, 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. 



Consider for a Httle avine craftsmanship, and you 



