STORKS 233 



drenching showers, they may often be seen stand- 

 ing about with their wings fully expanded, their 

 necks retracted, and their obscene heads drooping 

 so that the point of the beak almost touches the 

 ground. Like other storks, they frequently clatter 

 their mandibles together, producing a loudly rattling 

 sound that is often to be heard in the stillness of 

 a windless night in the neighbourhood of any of 

 their roosting places. Their appearance is a strange 

 medley - - a bizarre combination of the greatest 

 splendour with the basest squalor. Were one to 

 see only their wings with their magnificent pro- 

 portions and their lovely tints of grey and lavender, 

 one would regard them with unmixed admiration ; 

 but the base bald head clothed in disgustingly 

 scurfy skin and straggling hairs, the malignantly 

 sneaking expression of the pallid eyes, and the 

 ponderousness of the huge beak have an almost 

 mesmeric effect in distracting attention from any 

 redeeming features in the picture. Even the 

 splendid gamboge, orange, and vermilion hues that 

 paint the distended pouch as it hangs down in 

 front of the chest, in place of redeeming the 

 hideous and almost indecent character of the 

 appendage, only serve to accentuate the horror 

 by attracting attention to its presence. The only 

 times when a resting adjutant is to be seen really 

 to advantage are either when he is viewed from 

 behind whilst sunning his extended wings with 



