LEPTOPTTLUS. 261 



stone rock which rises almost perpendicularly out of an extensile 

 level plain to the height of 600 feet. The ascent was extremely 

 difficult and dangerous, and had never before (so the people assured 

 me) been attempted by a European. On gaining the summit 

 I found that I was immediately over the top of a large tree which 

 sprang from a crevice in the rock below, and on its highest branches 

 was an Adjutant's nest, composed of dry sticks very rudely inter- 

 laced (or merely heaped together ?), making a flat platform as it 

 were, with little or no perceptible cavity towards the centre. In 

 this were two young Adjutants, about the size of small Geese, 

 covered with a white down and with pouches and beaks ridiculously 

 disproportioned to their size, being extraordinarily large. Both of 

 the young were taken by one of my Burmese servants. In another 

 similar nest in an adjoining tree were one young one and one addled 

 egg of a spotless dirty white, and somewhat larger than a Turkey's 



egg" 



Colonel Tickell tells us that " on the Ataran Eiver a range of 

 perpendicular rocks of mineral limestone rise sheer out of the water 

 to 600 or 800 feet on the right bank of the river, and some extra- 

 ordinary, bold, scarped, insulated rocks are scattered also along the 

 opposite side. On the pinnacles of these rocks we observed numbers 

 of Adjutants. These large birds breed here annually, and the 

 rocks are in many places conspicuously white with their dung. 

 There are two species of Adjutant Leptoptilus argala (our old 

 Calcutta friend) and L. javanicus (a rarer visitor in Bengal) and 

 both breed together in these inaccessible places. The argala is 

 noticeably larger than the other, but eggs of the two species are 

 hardly to be distinguished apart." 



Mr. Oates found an enormous colony of these birds breeding in 

 Pegu in a forest west of Shwaygheen. He says : 



" Along with the Pelicans, breeding in the same trees, were in- 

 numerable Adjutants. One can hardly realize the number of these 

 birds that visit Pegu in October, unless, as I have, he has seen the 

 vast armies which settle on the plains on their first arrival. I have 

 stood on a bund where I could see about two miles round me, and 

 the whole area was literally covered with them. Some fifty birds 

 stand huddled together ; then there is a bare space of about 100 

 feet, and then another group of birds. Their numbers are in- 

 credible. They all arrive suddenly in the Pegu plain on the same 

 day, and after resting for about two days, they betake themselves 

 to the forest, where I had the pleasure of visiting them. Certainly 

 almost all the Indian Adjutants must come to Pegu to breed. 



" On the same day that we took the Pelicans' eggs, we also paid 

 attention to the Adjutants, but whereas in the case of the Pelicans 

 by climbing one tree you procure almost as many eggs as you care 

 to have, with the Adjutants it is different. Frequently there is 

 only a solitary nest in a tree, rarely two or three, and in this case 

 the tree selected is a stupendous one, with immense branches 

 reaching 50 feet from the trunk and mostly horizontal. These 

 nests are not to be got at even by Karens. Fortunately the nests 



