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by law in Calcutta and some other Indian cities, nothing seeming to come amiss 

 to them in tin- way of food, from the carcase of a large animal to a dead cat, 

 or from small birds to frogs and fish. Adjutants generally congregate in vast 

 flocks, although in the neighbourhood of towns solitary birds may often be 

 observed, cither stalking about alone or standing with outspread wings to dry 

 their plumage, or perched 011 one leg while asleep on some building or tree. 

 Their flight, although heavy and flapping, is powerful in the extreme, and they 

 frequently soar at immense heights in the air, from which they descend to join 

 the vultures at their feasts. Writing of the arrival of one of these birds at such 

 a carnival, Sir S. Baker observes that " a pair of long, ungainly legs, hanging 

 down beneath the enormous wings, now touch the ground, and abu seen has 

 arrived, and he stalks proudly towards the crowds, pecking his way with his long 

 bill through the struggling vultures, and swallowing the lion's share of the repast." 

 In the Xidong Hills the adjutant, according to Mr. C. T. Bingham, nests in vast 

 numbers during November and December, and in January the parents may be 

 seen feeding the young birds on the topmost pinnacles of their almost inaccessible 

 rocks. The nest is a large mass of sticks and twigs, devoid of lining, and scarcely 

 any depression in the centre ; the number of eggs varying from two to four, and 

 these being large chalky-white ovals. Occasionally, it is stated, the nests are 

 placed in trees, and the young birds are thickly covered with fluffy white down. 



The shell-storks or shell-ibises as they are often called, of 

 Shell Storks. 



which there is one African (Anastomus lamelligerus) and one 

 Indian species (A. oscitans), are much smaller birds than any of the preceding, 

 from all of which they are at once distinguished by the two mandibles of the 

 compressed and serrated beak being in the adult in contact at their two 

 extremities, but gaping widely in the middle. On account of the second and 

 third quills being the longest, the large wings are pointed, and the tail is short. 

 Although the Indian species has a normal plumage, that of the African kind is 

 remarkable in that the shafts of all the feathers of the throat, under-parts, and 

 thighs are prolonged into small horny processes at their extremities. In colour 

 the whole plumage is blackish with green and purple reflections ; the iris is red, 

 the beak yellowish, and the leg and foot black. Young birds lack the horny 

 plates at the tips of the feathers. In length the African species measures about 26 

 inches. The latter species is widely distributed over Central and South Africa, 

 and is also met with at Mozambique. Like its Indian congener, it feeds almost 

 exclusively on molluscs, especially Amputtarice, and according to Livingstone 

 breeds among reeds, although it has also been stated to nest in trees. In the 

 Barotse country the breeding-places are occupied year after year by vast numbers 

 of these birds, and the natives are accustomed to make a regular harvest of the 

 young. With regard to the peculiar gaping of the beak, Professor Ball writes 

 that " this was at one time supposed to be due to attrition of the edges, caused 

 by the nature of the food upon which the bird is generally believed to subsist. 

 Jerdon, however, stated that the bill of a young bird which he examined exhibited 

 the same gaping. This I did not find to be the case with any of the large 

 members which I saw. The bills were very much smaller than in the adult 

 birds, were conical in shape, and the edges were in distinct apposition, or slightly 



