260 oiooNHD^. 



Family CICONIID.E. 



Leptoptilus argala (Lath.). The Adjutant. 



Leptoptilus argala {Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 730. 

 Leptoptilos dubius (ffm.), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 915. 



Of the nidification of the Adjutant in India proper not much is 

 known. I only know of its having been found breeding in the 

 Soonderbunds and in the north of the Groruckpoor District. They 

 lay in November, making a huge stick-nest upon large trees, as a 

 rule, in locaUties difficult of access. 



Mr. E. W. G-. Frith, as quoted by Mr. Blyth, informs us that he 

 " found both of the species of Adjutant breeding in the south-east 

 part of the Soonderbunds. Their nests were placed on the tops of 

 the loftiest trees, and were extremely difficult and hazardous to 

 approach, from the density of the undergrowth aud the great num- 

 ber of tigers which infest the vicinity ; in fact, the nests were only 

 to be approached by means of the tracks made by rhinoceroses, 

 buffaloes, &c., through the jungle. The large or pouched species 

 breeds about a month earlier in the season than the other, imme- 

 diately (it would seem) after its arrival from the places which it 

 frequents during the rainy season. They are then in the finest 

 state of plumage — ash-grey, with the pale wing-band complete, and 

 for the most part they have just perfected their plumage when they 

 leave Calcutta at the end of the rains." 



The late Mr. Eobert Morell, I may add, informed me that the 

 Adjutants bred on large trees in the midst of dense jungle in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of his own fine estate of Morellgunj in 

 the Soonderbunds. 



The late Captain Beavan remarked : — " The nest of this species 

 has been observed in India by a near relative of my own, Lieutenan1> 

 Colonel Charles Drury, of the Bengal Staff Corps. It contained 

 two young ones, and was found by him at Munsoor Ghat (in the 

 north of the Goruckpoor District but not in the Terai) on a high 

 bank, near a stream, on or about the 15th December, 1861. The 

 old birds were put off the nest, which was on a semul or cotton- 

 tree, and a shot fired into the tree made the young birds, which were 

 fully fledged, come out and sit on one of the boughs, whence one 

 was bagged by auother shot." 



From Burma, however, we have much fuller information regarding 

 the breeding of this Adjutant. 



Mr. Bl3i;h quotes the following remarks of Captain Sparkes on 

 the nidification of this species : — " With regard to the Adjutant's 

 nest, I was out surveying in December 1848 in the district of 

 Moulmein, at a place about five miles to the east of the town, and 

 having occasion to ascend some eminence to obtain a good coup 

 cl'ceil of the surrounding country, I determined to climb to the top 

 of the highest peak of the Kharong TTills, a detached mass of lime- 



