OF INDIAN BIRDS IN GENERAL 5 



feather minutely examined. At the other extreme 

 stands the superlative of hideousness, the ugliest bird 

 in the world — Neophron ginginianiis, the scavenger 

 vulture. The bill, the naked face, and the legs of this 

 creature are a sickly yellow. Its plumage is dirty white, 

 with the exception of the ends of the wing feathers, 

 which are shabby black. Its shape is displeasing to the 

 eye, and its gait is an ungainly waddle. Yet even this 

 fowl looks almost beautiful as it sails on outstretched 

 pinions, high in the heaven. Between the extremely 

 beautiful and the extremely ugly birds we meet with 

 another class of superlatives — the extremely grotesque. 

 This class is well represented in India. The great 

 hornbill — Dichoceros hicornis — and the adjutant — Lep- 

 toptilus dubitis — are birds which would take prizes in 

 any exhibition of oddities. The former is nearly four 

 and a half feet in length. The body is only fourteen 

 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 the 

 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 on its head. The eye is red, and the 

 upper lid is fringed with eyelashes, 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 prehistoric times. The actions 



