834 The Zoologist— July, 1867. 



found - together ; and at whatever season, when one is found, its mate may almost to a 

 certainty be found somewhere near. This would lead one to imagine that many pairs 

 do not separate after the business of incubation is over, but keep paired for several 

 successive years. In forests where there is little grass or under-wood, they get up as 

 soon as aware of the approach of any one near, or run quickly along the ground for 

 some distance; but where there is much cover they lie very close, and will not get up 

 till forced by dogs or beaters. When put up by dogs they often fly up into a tree close 

 by, which they rarely do when flushed by beaters or the sportsman himself, then flying 

 a long way and generally alighting on the ground. Their flight is rapid in the 

 extreme, and after a few whirs they sometimes shoot down like lightning. They some- 

 times utter a few lone chuckles before getting up, and rise sometimes with a low 

 screeching chatter and sometimes silently. The males often crow at day-break, and 

 occasionally at all hours. In the remote forest of the interior, on the report of a gun, 

 all which are within half a mile or so will often crow after each report. They also 

 often crow after a clap of thunder or any loud or sudden noise: this peculiarity seems 

 to be confined to those in dark shady woods in the interior, as I never noticed it on the 

 lower hills. This species feeds principally on leaves and buds; it also eats roots, 

 grubs, acorns, seeds and berries, and moss and flowers. It will not readily eat grain ; 

 and is found to be more difficult to rear in confinement than the monal. It roosts in 

 trees generally, but at times on low bushes or on the ground. The female lays seven 

 eggs, nearly resembling those of the monal in colour: they are hatched about the 

 middle or end of May. She makes her nest under the shelter of an over-hanging tuft 

 of grass, or in a corner at the foot of a tree, aud sometimes in the hollow of a decayed 

 trunk. — * Birds of India,' vol. i. p. 524. 



The Gigantic Stork or Adjutant (Leptoptilos argala). — In Calcutta and some other 

 large towns the adjutant is a familiar bird, not to be frightened by the near approach 

 of man or dog, and protected in some cases by law. It is an efficient scaveuger, 

 attending the neighbourhood of slaughter-houses, and especially the burning-grounds 

 of the Hindoos, where the often half-burnt carcasses are thrown into the rivers. It 

 also diligently looks over the heaps of refuse and offal thrown out in the streets to await 

 the arrival of the scavengers' carts, where it may be seen in company with dogs, kites 

 and crows. It likes to vary its food, however, and may often be seeu searching ditches, 

 pools of water and tanks for frogs or fish. In the Deccan it soars at an immense 

 height in the air along with vultures, ready to descend on any carcase that may be 

 discovered. After it has satisfied the cravings of its appetite, the adjutant reposes 

 during the heat of the day, sometimes on the tops of houses, now and then on trees, 

 and frequently on the ground, resting often on the whole tarsus. The adjutant occa- 

 sionally may seize a crow or a myna, or even a small cat; but these are rare bits for 

 it, and indeed it has not the opportunity, in general, of indulging its taste for living 

 birds, notwithstanding Cuviei's statement that its large beak enables it to capture 

 birds on the wing. — Id., p. 731. 



The Shell Ibis (Anastomus oscitans). — This curious bird is very abundant through- 

 out those parts of the country which abound in rivers, tanks and marshes, particularly 

 in Bengal, where many hundreds may be seen congregated together roosting on trees 

 overhanging some large jheel. It lives chiefly on mollusks, especially on the large 

 Ampullaria, but also on various others. Colonel Sykes states that he found it feeding 

 on a species of Unio. I was foimerly of opinion that the open space between the 



