STORKS, HERONS, AND PELICAN TRIBE 
51 
account of the peculiar gait, which bears a fanciful resem- 
blance to the measured pacing of an officer on parade. Like 
all the Storks, they have large bodies and very long legs, but 
they have outstripped all their relatives in the enormous size 
of the beak. The features which have earned this unenviable 
reputation for ugliness are the peculiarly unkempt and 
unwashed appearance of the head and neck. These are but 
scantily clothed in very shabby, brown-looking down-feathers; 
and the neck is made still more, we might almost say, 
repulsive by the presence of a 
large bare pouch, which can 
be distended with air to an 
enormous size at will. The 
Arabs, onaccountof this pouch, 
call the species resident with 
them “ The Father of the 
Leather Bottle.” Some, how- 
ever, say that the correct trans- 
lation of the native name 
ADJUTANT-STORK 
Tie curious wind hag is well shown 
Photo by Scholastic PhotOt Co, 
JABIRU STORK 
This bird stands between and J feet high 
would be “ The Father of the 
Beak.” But it is not only on 
account of their scavenging 
propensities that the adjutants 
are esteemed, for it is from 
the under tail-coverts of these 
birds that the much-prized 
“ marabou ” or “ comercolly ” 
feathers are obtained — at least 
the finest kinds ; for some 
appear to be furnished by that chief of scavengers, the vulture. 
More precious still “ is the celebrated stone called Zahir 
mora, or poison-killer, of great virtue and repute as an anti- 
dote to all kinds of poison,” to be procured only by splitting 
open the head of the bird before death. Needless to say, 
the existence of this stone lives only in popular superstition, 
though how many poor birds have fallen victims thereto is 
not pleasant to contemplate. 
Adjutants choose almost inaccessible pinnacles of rock on 
Phot0 by IV, P. Dando^ F.Z.Se 
ADJUTANT-STORK 
T/iis s/iows the bird in a rather unusual 
attitude 
