38 HERON. 



Inhabits India; said to frequent the snowy mountains of Surinagur; 

 weight one sare and an eighth, or about two pounds and a quarter. 

 In the drawing, from which the above is described, it is called in the 

 Persian, Saurus, and said to be a Variety of the Saroos. 



8,— GIGANTIC CRANE. -Pl. cxlvi. 



Ardea Argala, Ind. Orn. ii. 676. 



Ardea dubia, Qm. Lin. i. 624. 



Argill, or Hurgill, Ives, Voy. 183, View of Hindoost. ii. 156. 



Boorong Combing, Booring oolor, Marsd. Sumat. p. 98. 



Gigantic Crane, Gen. Syn. v. 45. Id. Sup. 232. pl. 115. 



THIS seems to be the largest of the Heron Tribe, expanding, 

 from the tip of one wing to that of the other, fourteen feet ten inches ;* 

 from the point of the bill to the claws, seven feet and a half; 

 and when standing erect is five feet high. The bill of a vast size, 

 sharp-pointed, compressed on the sides, of a yellowish white, or 

 horn-colour, and opens very far back into the head; the nostrils a 

 slit high up, near the base, at which part it is sixteen inches in 

 circumference ; the whole head and neck are naked, the front yellow; 

 fore part of the neck the same, but more dull ; the hind part of the 

 neck red, with here and there a warty excrescence, mixed with a few 

 straggling hairs, curled at the ends; on the lower part of the neck 

 before is a conical, large pouch, appearing inflated, like a bladder, 

 greatly elongated, hanging over the breast, and sparingly beset with 

 short down, with a tuft of long hairs at the bottom ; the upper part 

 of the back and shoulders furnished with white, downy feathers; the 

 back itself and wing coverts deep bluish ash-colour : second wing 

 coverts white on the outer web ; second quills dusky brown; prime 

 quills and tail deep blackish lead-colour: the latter ten inches long, 



* One, which was living in a Menagerie in Englaud for some years, had only fourteen feet 

 in expanse of wing, but it was supposed not to be a full grown bird. 



