264 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



The Lesser Adjutant is distributed over the whole Province, but is com- 

 paratively scarce and met with singly, not in flocks. 



It is found over a considerable portion of India and Ceylon, the Tndo- 

 Burmese countries, Eastern China, Cochin China, the Malay peninsula, 

 Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 



This species appears to be a constant resident in Burmah, but is nowhere 

 very common. It frequents the same localities as the last, but, unlike it, 

 is never met with in the streets of Indian towns. I found its nest in 

 November in the forests west of Shwaygheen ; and neither the nest nor 

 the eggs differed from those of the Adjutant. Both these Storks also 

 breed on the limestone rocks near Moulmein. 



Genus XENORHYNCHUS, Bonap. 



628. XENOEHYNCHUS ASIATICUS. 



THE BLACK-NECKED STORK. 



Mycteria asiatica, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 670. Ardea indica, Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. 

 p. 701. Mycteria australis, Shaw, Trans. Linn. 8oc. v. p. 34; Jerd. E. Ind. 

 ii. p. 734. Mycteria indica, Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 607; id. S.F. iii. 

 p. 189. Xenorhynchus australis, 1. fy Wald. B. JBurm. p. 158 ; Hume $ 

 Dav. S. F. vi. p. 469 ; Oates, S. F. vii. p. 51 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 114 ; Parker, 

 8. F. ix. p. 484 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1117 ; Gates, S. F. x. p. 242. 



Description. Male and female. The whole head and neck black, glossed 

 with purple and blue ; nape coppery brown, with a rich purple-and-rufous 

 gloss ; scapulars, tertiaries, greater wing-coverts and tail black, more or 

 less glossed with blue and purple ; remainder of the plumage white ; 

 greater under wing-coverts black. 



The young bird has the whole head and neck buffy brown, the feathers 

 soft and downy ; feathers round the eye dark brown ; body-plumage white, 

 with a brown collar across the upper breast and a brown patch on the 

 rump ; back and lesser wing-coverts beautifully marked with alternating 

 brown and white lines ; the coverts immediately next the body nearly pure 

 white ; greater coverts tipped with white ; scapulars and wings glossy 

 greenish black; the bases of the quills white; tail blackish. 



Legs and toes coral-red ; claws dusky pink ; bill black ; gular skin and 

 eyelids dusky purple; iris bluish brown. The young have the legs and 

 toes brown and the culmen at first quite straight, not turned up as in the 

 adult. 



Length 52 inches, tail 9*5, wing 24,- tarsus 13, bill from gape about 12. 

 The female is of about the same size. 



