374 



turning to pink at the end of the pouch, which is spotted with 

 black ; loose skin at back of neck brick-red ; irides yellowish white ; 

 legs and toes brown, the edge of the reticulations white (Gates). 

 Bill pale dirty greenish ; legs greyish white (Jerdori). The pouch 

 is sometimes 12 to 16 inches or more in length, but is capable of 

 extension and retraction to a considerable extent. 



Length 60 ; tail 13 ; wing 32 ; tarsus 13 ; bill from gape 13. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of India in summer, 

 very common in Bengal and Northern India, rare or wanting in 

 the South, unknown in Ceylon ; vary abundant and breeding in 

 parts of Burma in winter, and occasionally met with throughout 

 the year. This Stork ranges into the Malay Peninsula, Siam, 

 Cochin China, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 



Habits, 6fc. This is a Stork that has taken to the ways of vultures, 

 feeding with them on carcases and offal, and visiting piles of 

 refuse in and around large towns, in company with kites and 

 crows, to search for food. In Calcutta throughout the hot season 

 and rains Adjutants swarm, and formerly, before the sanitary 

 arrangements of the city were improved, numbers haunted the 

 river ghats in the daytime and perched on Government House 

 and other conspicuous buildings at night. Adjutants as useful 

 scavengers are in many places protected by law. Their food, 

 however, is not confined to carcases and offal, they live also at 

 times on fish, reptiles, and frogs like other Storks. Their flight 

 is heavy and noisy, but they soar like vultures ; when on the ground 

 they often rest on the whole tarsus, and they frequently sit with 

 the head drawn in between the shoulders. The pouch is uncon- 

 nected with the gullet, and the common idea that it serves to 

 r338ive food is quite erroneous. Adjutants breed on large trees 

 in. November and December ; immense numbers were found by 

 Gates breeding in company with Pelicans near Shwegyin in Burma, 

 and the nests and eggs of colonies near Moulmein have been 

 described by Tickell, Bingham, and others. A few cases of 

 nidification have been observed in India in the north of the 

 Gorakhpur district (Beavan\ in the Sundarbuns (Frith, Morell), and 

 in Manbhoom (Ball). The nest is a huge structure of sticks; the 

 eggs, usually three in number, are white and measure about 3 by 

 2'28. Both Gates and Bingham describe a peculiar grunting 

 pound, like the lowing of a cow, made by Adjutants in the 

 breeding-season. These birds are completely destitute of voice- 

 muscles, and it is a question how the noise is produced. Usually, 

 like other Storks, the only sound they make is produced by 

 snapping their huge bills. 



1551. Leptoptilus javanicus. The Smaller Adjutant. 



Ciconia javanica, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 188 (1821). 



Leptoptilus javanicus, Blyth, Cat. p. 277 ; Jerdon, B. I. Hi, p. 732 ; 

 Blyth $ Wald. Birds Burin, p. 159 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, 

 p. 469; Oates, S. F. vii, p. 51; Davids. $ Wend. ibid. p. 90; 

 Ball, ibid. p. 230; Hume, Cat. no. 916; Leyge, Birds Ceyl. 



