on some Victims of Fashion. 179


much in demand for ladies’ feather boas. When I was at Aden

I had a small bunch of these “ Marabout ” feathers offered to me

for five shillings. I eventually secured them for fourpeuce !

Adjutants, like other Storks, are completely devoid of voice

muscles, and the only sound they appear to make is produced by

the snapping of the huge bill. They breed rarely in India, but

plentifully in Burmah, and the nest is a huge structure of sticks

placed 011 large trees. They breed in colonies, sometimes in

company with Pelicans, and the eggs are white and three in

number. The fowlers snare Adjutants by means of nooses

fastened on bamboo pegs stuck in the ground. Mr. Inglis thus

describes the process:—“The nooses which are all close to¬

gether are put down on three sides near where the bird is feed¬

ing, and the men gradually make it edge up to them. If it steps

into them well and good, if not they take them up and put them

farther on. It is generally a very lengthy proceeding but that is

immaterial to the native.”


s? # a-


The large Egret (Herodias alba).


Colouration, pure white. The breeding plumes consist of

a very long train of feathers springing from the back—these are

the “Ospreys”—extending from four to five inches beyond the

tail. There are no crest or breast plumes. The bill is black in

the breeding season, at other times yellow. Length about 36

inches.


The large Egret, or as it is sometimes called Great White

Heron, is plentiful throughout the plains of Northern India, and

is also found in Burmah and Ceylon. It breeds like all Herons

in large colonies, but after the breeding season is a somewhat

solitary bird. I have always found it extremely wary and diffi¬

cult to approach, but when nesting looses much of its natural

wariness, and is then tame and confiding, and hence falls an easy

prey to the fowler. A good many birds that are at other times

wild and inaccessible lose this trait when nesting, and a case in

point came under my notice a year ago. A gamekeeper I was in

company with found a nest of young Jays (Garrtilusglandarius)

and both the old birds sat close to the nest refusing to leave and

paid the penalty with their lives. The Jay at other times is one



