HERON. 41 



two morsels; known to swallow a leg of mutton of five or six pounds, 

 a hare, also a small fox, &c. : after a time the bones are rejected from 

 the stomach, which seems to be voluntary, for it has been known, 

 that an ounce or more of emetic tartar, given to one of these birds, 

 produced no effect.* 



I observe this very singular bird in various drawings done in 

 India ; and it appears subject to some Variety from sex or age : in 

 one the bill seems rather bent, the eye placed in the base of it, sur- 

 rounded with dusky mottlings; head and neck bare, red; pouch as 

 usual, with here and there a short bristle ; on the top and back of 

 the head and neck sprinkled with hairs, and at intervals a narrow, 

 short, black feather : at the beginning of the back a kind of white 

 ruff" of down, falling on each side over the edge of the wing ; the 

 rest of the plumage black; under parts dusky white; legs long, 

 stout, white, marked with numerous dusky spots ; claws black. 



In another, the bill is very pale ; the head and neck wholly 

 covered with short down, longer at the back of the neck and nape 

 and mixed with black streaks; the pouch before just visible, but 

 contracted, and furnished with long, undulated, dusky, downy hairs,' 

 a larger downy ruff* of white, and all the under parts white ; the 

 rest black. 



This last seems to be a young bird. I remark in one of the 

 drawings, that the bill of a full grown bird is said to measure seven- 

 teen inches in length, and that it is equally fond of putrid carcases 

 as the Vulture, for groups of both mix together over a dead animal, 

 never leaving it till they have completely picked the bones.| One 

 of the names given to it is Samcool. 



* Oriental Field Sports, i. p. 100. 



f Lord Mountnorris, after mentioning the amazing flocks of Kites and Crows, which 

 cover the houses and gardens at Calcutta, and subsist on the remains of the great profusion 

 of food there dressed, and which the prejudices of the natives prevent their touching; adds, 

 that in the profession of scavengers, the Kites and Crows are assisted during the day by the 

 Adjutant Bird, and at night by the Foxes, Jackals, and Hysenas, from the neighbouring 

 jungles. — Valent. Travels, i. 510. 



VOL. IX. G 



