30 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



down it turns to brick-red. There is a ruff of white 

 feathers round the base of the neck. This ruff, of 

 course, appears entirely out of place and adds to the 

 general grotesqueness of the bird. The back and wings 

 are ashy black, becoming slaty grey at the breeding 

 season. The lower parts are white. 



As if the creature, thus arrayed, were not sufficiently 

 comic, Nature has given it a great pouch which dangles 

 from the neck. This is over a foot in length and hangs 

 down like a bag when inflated. It is red in colour, 

 spotted with black. Its situation naturally leads one to 

 believe that it is connected with the gullet, that it is 

 a receptacle into which the bird can hastily pass the 

 garbage it swallows pending more complete disposal. 

 But it is nothing of the sort. It does not communicate 

 directly with the oesophagus. Knowing this, one is able 

 to appreciate to the full the splendid mendacity of the 

 writer to Chambers 's Journal in 1861, who declares that 

 he witnessed an adjutant swallow a crow which he 

 watched " pass into the sienna-toned pouch of the gaunt 

 avenger. He who writes saw it done." 



Note the last sentence. The scribe was evidently of 

 opinion that people would not believe him, so thought 

 to clinch matters by bluffing ! But, to do him justice, 

 it is quite possible that he did see an adjutant swallow 

 a crow, for other observers have witnessed this, but the 

 remainder of the story rests upon the sandy foundation 

 of the imagination. If the truth must be told, we do 

 not know for certain what the use of this pouch is. 

 Blyth suggested that it is analogous to the air cell 

 attached to one lung only of the python or the boa- 



