262 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Family CICONIIDtE. 
Genus LEPTOPTILUS, Less. 
626. LEPTOPTILUS ARGALA. 
THE ADJUTANT. 
Ardea dubia, Gm. Sijst. Nat. i. p. 624 (part.). Ardea argala, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. 
p. 676. Leptoptilos argala, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p, 730 ; Bl. Sr Wald. B. Burm. 
p. 158 ; Wardkm Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 470 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 468 j 
Bingham, S. F. vii. p. 25 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 114 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 197 ; 
Oates, S.F. x. p. 242. Leptoptilus dubius, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 357 ; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 605; Oates, 8. F. iii. p. 346. Leptoptilus giganteus 
{Forst), Oates, 8. F. vii. p. 50. 
Description. — Male and female in breeding-plumage. Head, neck and pouch 
nearly naked, there being only a few scattered hairs or soft feathers here 
and there ; breast, abdomen, sides of the body, vent and the under wing- 
coverts immediately next the body white ; remainder of the under wing- 
coverts dark grey ; under tail-coverts soft, long and decomposed, white 
tipped with black ; the whole upper plumage, wings and tail black ; the 
greater wing- coverts and the tertiaries greyish white, the basal portions 
white and the outer webs narrowly edged with the same. 
In nonhreeding -plumage the tertiaries and greater wing-coverts become 
dark, like the other portions of the wing. 
Bill pinkish flesh-colour ; skin of the head and chin pale reddish brown ; 
skin of the forehead and at the base of the bill rough and blackish, pre- 
senting the appearance of having been scorched; neck saffron-yellow, 
turning to pink at the end of the pouch, the whole of which is spotted with 
black j loose skin at the base of the back of the neck brick-red ; iris 
yellowish white ; eyelids plumbeous, the edges pink ; legs and toes brown, 
the edges of the reticulations white ; claws black. 
Male : length 60*5 inches, tail 12*5, wing 82, tarsus 13, bill from 
gape 14. Female : length 52, tail 11, wing 28*5, tarsus 11, bill from 
gape 11. The pouch, when lowered, is frequently a foot or more in 
length. 
The Adjutant or Gigantic Stork is more or less distributed over the 
whole Province ; but it is most abundant in the large plains of Southern 
Pegu, where they arrive in immense numbers in October and leave again in 
February or March. 
It is met with over the greater part of India and the Indo-Burmese 
