THE BRUSH-TURKEY-THE ADJUTANT-BIRD- CRIES. 657 



and without any warning, give up their chicks— not feeble, but full-fledged and strong, 

 so that at night they scrape holes for themselves, and lying dowa thereia are covered 

 over by the old birds and thus remain until morning. The extraordinary strenf^th of 

 the newly-hatched birds is accounted for by the size of the shell, since in so laro-e a 

 space it is reasonable to suppose that the young ones would be much more developed 

 than is usually found in eggs of smaller dimensions. 



It is not to be wondered at that in the tropical world, where lizards, snakes, and 

 frogs attain such extraordinary dimensions, the cranes or stork tribes, which chiefly 

 live upon these reptiles, should also grow to a more colossal size than their European 

 representatives. Thu^, while torrid America boasts of the Jabiru, Africa and India 

 possess the still larger Argala, or Adjutant, whose feeding exploits and ugliness have 

 already been mentioned in the chapter on snakes. Mis beak, measuring sixteen inches 

 in circumference at the base, corresponds with his appetite. He is soon rendered fa- 

 miliar with man, and when fish or other food is thrown to him, he catches it very nim- 

 bly and immediately swallows it entire. A young bird of this kind, about five feet in 

 hight, was brought up tame and presented to a chief on the coast of Guinea, where 

 Mr. Smeathman lived. It regularly attended the hall at dinner time, placing itself 

 behind its master's chair, frequently before any of the guests entered. The servants 

 were obliged to watch it carefully, and to defend the provisions by beatino^ it off with 

 sticks ; still it would frequently snatch off something from the table, and one day pur- 

 loined a whole boiled fowl, which it swallowed in an instant. It used to fly about the 

 island, and roost very high among the silk-cotton trees ; from this station, at the dis- 

 tance of two or three miles, it could see when the dinner was carried across the court, 

 when, darting down, it would arrive early enough to enter with some of those wlio 

 carried in the dishes. Sometimes it would stand in the room for half an hour after 

 dinner, turning its head alternately as if taking a deep interest in the conversation. 

 These birds are found in companies, and when seen at a distance near the mouths of 

 rivers, advancing towards an observer, it is said that they may be easily mistaken for 

 canoes on the surface of a smooth sea ; and when on the sand-banks, for men and 

 women picking up shell fish on the beach. 



The tropical forests of the eastern hemisphere resound with bird-cries no less appall- 

 ing, wild, or strange than those of the western world. In the close jungles of Ceylon 

 one occasionally hears the call of the Copper-smith {M<-galasarn Indica.) whoso din 

 resembles the blows of a smith hammerinn; a caldron, or the strokes of the great 

 orange-colored Woodpecker (Brachypterus aurnntius,) as it beats the decaying trees 

 in search of insects ; but of all the yells that fancy can imagine there is none to equal 

 that of the Singhalese Devil-bird, or Gualama. " Its ordinary cry," says Mr. .M it- 

 ford, "is a magnificent clear shout like that of a human being, and which can l)e 

 heard at a great distance, and has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. It 

 has another cry like that of a hen just caught ; but the sounds which have cnnied for 

 it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to perfection, are iii(lescrii)ahle ; the 

 most appalling tliat can be imagined, and scarcely to be heard without sliuddoring. I 

 can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are being stopped by being 

 strangled. On hearing this dreadful note the terrified Singhalese hurries from t!io 

 spot, for should he chance to see the bird of ill omen he is sure that liis death is ni;z;h. 

 A servant of Mr. Baker's, who had the misfortune of seeing the dreaded gualama, 



42 



