IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 293 



Sab.— Europe, Asia, and Africa; it visits India during the cold 

 weather only, and is then common in the North-Western Provinces and 

 the Deccan ; not known to have been found in Lower Bengal. 



Length of life in captivity. 

 A few have been living since 1883. 



Treatment in health 



The spoonbill, ibis, flamingo, heron, adjutant and stork require, 

 with slight variations, identical treatment with respect to housing and 

 feeding, and are therefore grouped together. 



Sousing. — The accommodation for animals in captivity should be 

 as close an imitation of their wild haunts as it is possible to provide. 

 The various wading birds mentioned above should therefore have an 

 area of a large tank or lake, with gently sloping and well turfed banks, 

 set apart for them; for the adjutants, storks, flamingos, and even for 

 the spoonbill, a light enclosure, about four feet high, is enough ; but 

 the ibises, herons, egrets, &c, require a covered space (see under 

 ducks and geese, p. 306). Like most other animals in captivity, many of 

 these birds sometimes exhibit great jealousy at the introduction of a 

 stranger amongst them, and do not cease to worry it until it is 

 removed ; the large egret and the black-necked stork have been found 

 to be the greatest culprits in this respect; some of the wading birds 

 may have to be exhibited in other places, with shallow tanks built in 

 the floor, which, though good in themselves, can never be as comfort- 

 able for them as the bank of a tank or lake ; such places are, however, 

 particularly adapted for the night herons, as affording concealment 

 and solitude during the day. In order to prevent the storks and 

 adjutants, $*c, which are kept simply in an enclosure, from flying away, 

 their wings require to be clipped periodically, but the most practical 

 and simplest method of doing it once for all is to remove the first 

 joint of one wing and cauterise the stump. 



Food. — In their wild state the spoonbill feeds on aquatic insects, 

 small Crustacea and molluscs, frogs and fish, and as most of them are 

 easily obtainable, no difficulty need be experienced in feeding it; the 

 specimen now living in the collection is fed upon prawns and small 

 fish, and does not object to take minced meat occasionally. The pelican 

 ibis finds a great deal of its own food oj frequently stirring up by its 

 right foot the mud at the bottom of the water near the edge of a tank, 

 and seizing and devouring crabs, frogs or fish that it may chance to find ; 

 but in addition to this a small quantity of meat and fish may be 

 daily supplied to each of them. The shell ibis is rather a difficult 

 bird to find food for in captivity, as it chiefly lives upon molluscs ; 

 it has never yet thriven in this garden, and therefore nothing can be 

 confidently said about it. The black-headed, glossy, and scarlet ibises 

 thrive on minced meat, small fish and prawns; those that have become 

 tame greedily devour bits of bread and biscuit thrown to them ; 

 they also search and find a great deal of their own food, consisting of 

 aquatic insects, frogs and molluscs. The herons and storks also live 

 upon fish and meat; the adjutants and the black-necked storks are 



