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afterwards the other, alternately, then turn round and 

 warm the plumage of the back ; there was, in fact, art 

 and method in its whirls and semicurves, which never 

 failed to interest attention in the exhibition. 



Mr. Davies has supplied us with the following 

 account of " the adjutant, " linked by natural affinities 

 with this family. " That singular species of the stork, 

 called by our soldiers, on account of its stately and 

 military march, the adjutant, is exceedingly common in 

 Hindustan, particularly in the cantonments, to which 

 places it is irresistibly incited by the great quantities 

 of animal food used by the Europeans. Fort William, 

 Calcutta, may be said to be infested by it ; though 

 the annoyance occasioned by its voraciousness is more 

 than compensated by its predilection for serpents and 

 other venomous reptiles, whose increase, if not retarded 

 by the adjutant, would be a more serious evil. Scarcely 

 can a dinner pass from the culinary regions to the 

 higher apartments without being pounced on by these 

 voracious birds ; and often I have seen families de- 

 spoiled in a moment of their expected aliment by these 

 unceremonious and unwelcome guests : the size of the 

 joint presents no difficulty to the seizure. I have been 

 told that the capture and deglutition of a leg of mutton in 

 this manner is a very common occurrence ; and though 

 I cannot say I have witnessed this rapid manoeuvre 

 performed, yet from my remembrance of the size of 

 joints of Indian mutton, and the rapaciousness of these 

 birds, I cannot doubt the truth of what I have heard. 

 They so completely besiege a room in which there are 

 any symptoms of good cheer, that joints or morsels 

 thrown from the apartments (generally elevated above 

 the ground-floor) are caught, long ere they fall to the 

 earth, by some fortunate competitor, whose dexterity 

 and generalship for a moment brings on him the 



