314 THE JABIRU. 



In its appetite the Hurgila is as great a glutton as our 

 Heron. Nothing comes amiss to its all-digesting stomach. 



The fourth genus, Jabiru, very much resembles the Storks, 

 and appears to have similar habits, the chief distinction con- 

 sisting in the form of the bill, which is rather fuller, and 

 slightly curved upwards at the end. The skin of the neck is 

 wrinkled, and so flaccid that it hangs down like the dewlap of 

 a Cow, and probably may be of the same use as the pouch of 

 the Hurgila above mentioned. It is, indeed, from considering 

 this dewlap as an air-vessel, that it derives its name Jabiru, 

 which, in the language of the Guarani Indians, in South 

 America, signifies anything inflated by wind ; and they, like 

 the Hurgilas, not only frequent marshes, but rise slowly to 

 immense heights, where they will remain for a considerable 

 time. 



We cannot tako 

 leave of the Heron 

 family without put- 

 ting our readers on 



The Beak of the Jabiru. " their g Uard a g ainst a 



very dangerous in- 

 stinctive faculty they seem to possess of depriving their assail- 

 ants of eye-sight. If wounded, they will allow a dog to 

 approach, and then, though apparently insensible, w r ill in an 

 instant, with unerring aim, dart at its eye with a force, rapidity, 

 and certainty, which it is almost impossible to guard against. 

 We remember a gentleman who narrowly escaped ; he had, as 

 he conceived, killed a Bittern, and deposited it in a large pocket 

 of his shooting-jacket ; when, fortunately, as he was walking 

 on, happening to feel something insinuating itself between his 

 arm and side, he, just in time to save his eye, caught sight of 

 the beak of the Bittern, which had been only wounded, and 

 was in the act of lancing itself, with the full elastic jerk of its 

 long neck, towards his face. This faculty, however, is not 

 entirely confined to either the Heron or Bittern ; it extends 

 itself to other species, as appears from the similar escape of a 

 naval officer on the coast of Africa. " I winged," says he, "a 

 beautiful white Aigrette (Egret) that was passing overhead, 



