The Adjutant. 353 



his presence is encouraged in towns, where he assists 

 the vultures, crows, dogs, and jackals, in performing the 

 duties of scavengers. Indeed his rapacity is so great 

 that he swallows such innutritions substances as bone 

 with such eagerness and relish as to have received the 

 name of " Bone-eater" or " Bone-taker." When he comes 

 about the houses he requires to be carefully watched, as 

 his power of swallowing is so great that a fowl, a rabbit, 

 or even a leg of mutton, is disposed of at a single mouth- 

 ful. Sir E. Home states that in the stomach of an Adju- 

 tant were found a tortoise nearly a foot long, and a large 

 black cat ; from which we may see that the Adjutant is 

 by no means squeamish in his diet. 



The Adjutant is indeed a very gigantic bird. Its 

 wings often measure fourteen or fifteen feet from tip to 

 tip, and it is five feet high when it stands erect. 



Dr. Latham, in his " General History of Birds," gives 

 some very interesting information about the habits of 

 this bird. " One of them, a young bird about five feet 

 high, was brought up tame, and presented to the chief 

 of the Bananas, where M. Speakman lived ; and being 

 accustomed to be fed in the great hall, soon became fa- 

 miliar, daily attending that place at dinner-time, placing 

 itself behind its master's chair frequently before the 

 guests entered. The servants were obliged to watch 

 narrowly, and to defend the provisions with switches ; 

 but, notwithstanding, it would frequently seize some- 

 thing or other, and even purloined a whole boiled fowl, 

 which it swallowed in an instant. Its courage is not 

 equal to its voracity, for a child of eight or ten years old 

 soon puts it to flight with a switch. Everything is 

 swallowed whole, and so accommodating is its throat 

 that not only an animal as big as a cat is gulped down, 

 but a shin of beef broken asunder serves it but for two 

 morsels." 



Another species of Adjutant (Leptoptilus marabou) is 

 found in tropical Africa. It is even uglier than the 

 Indian bird, which has not much beauty to boast of, but 

 is valuable not only as a scavenger, but from its fur- 

 nishing those beautiful plumes called marabout feathers, 

 whicb are so much used for ladies' head-dresses. 



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