THE HERONS. 179 



almost as soon as they are hatched, like chickens. In 

 this respect they resemble Plovers and all the water- 

 fowl which we have been considering hitherto. 

 Storks and Herons, on the other hand, build their nests 

 on trees, and the young are at first naked and helpless, 

 like young crows or sparrows. To my mind this is 

 a very important difference, entailing greater parental 

 responsibility and implying higher intelligence. 



In modern systems these birds are rightly classed 

 in a different order from the Cranes, and though Jerdon 

 put them in the same order, he separated them by a 

 wide interval. The difference between Storks and 

 Herons is not so great nor so easily explained. The 

 Storks are heavier birds, with large and clumsy bills ; 

 but the most obvious outward sign by which they 

 may be known from one another is this, that when 

 a Stork flies, it holds its neck out straight and stiff, 

 and looks like a man carrying his hat on the point 

 of his walking stick ; while the Heron doubles back 

 its more flexible neck and rests its head between 

 its shoulders. 



The great Sarus, the Common Crane and the 

 beautiful and savoury Demoiselle, or Kullum of 

 sportsmen, are very familiar birds in Guzerat and the 

 north of India ; but I have never seen them, or heard 

 of their occurrence, on this coast, except during last 

 cold season, when the famine in Guzerat forced them to 

 wander in search of water. Of Storks there are 

 several species which may be met with up the creeks, 

 and the well-known Adjutant, the Goliath of the 

 whole Stork tribe, consorts with the Vultures at the 

 Towers of Silence, as I learned recently from the 

 veracious sketches of a well-known " special artist " 



