ORDER GRALLJE. 505 



for it can only be considered as a bird of passage there. 

 There is but one appearance of this bird recorded in this 

 country. It was slightly wounded, and then taken alive at 

 Stoke St. Gregory, in the county of Somerset, on the 13th 

 of May, 1814, and conveyed to Mr. Montague. Though a 

 very wild bird, and habituated to frequent only the most 

 desert marshes, it has occasionally been tamed to a certain 

 degree. It presents, however, no resource for the tal le, for 

 its flesh has a disagreeable fishy flavour. / 



The Gigantic Crane of Latham, (Ardea Argala ei Dubia), 

 belongs to this genus. This bird, which lives wf flocks at 

 the mouths of rivers in Bengal, is also found in rne southern 

 parts of Africa, where it subsists on testacea, reptiles, fish, 

 and even mammalia, whose bones it triturates before swallow- 

 ing, and digests without difficulty. It is venerated in the 

 countries which it inhabits, from its destruction of serpents 

 and pernicious reptiles. In captivity its gluttony renders it 

 omnivorous, and it is easily tamed. 



This enormous bird has a majestic walk, and at a distance 

 bears some resemblance to a naked Indian. It is called by 

 the Anglo-Indians the Adjutant, from a fancied resemblance 

 to a man in a white waistcoat and breeches at a dis- 

 tance, and possibly from the erectness and stiffness of its 

 gait. The natives believe these birds to be the receptacles of 

 the souls of the Bramins, and deem them to be invulnerable. 

 Mr. Ives mentions, in his " View of Hindostan," that when 

 he missed his shot at several of them, the standers by greatly 

 exulted, and declared that he might shoot at them for ever 

 without succeeding. 



From the circumstance of its swallowing bones, this stork 

 is also called the bone-eater, or bone-taker. In confirmation 

 of its voracity, it is recorded that a land tortoise, ten inches 

 long, was found in its craw, and a large male black cat, entire, 

 in the stomach. 



Mr. Smeathman, during his residence at Sierra Leone, 



