THE GIGANTIC CRANE. 
825 
night, they lounge about with perfect fearlessness all day 
long, and almost jostled us from our paths.” The bishop’s 
information, however, respecting this pouch, is not correct ; 
it having been ascertained, that this hag is not at all con- 
nected with the gullet, and has therefore no reference to food, 
hut is merely an air-vessel on a very large scale, employed as 
occasion requires, either in sustaining the bird in its lofty 
soaring flights, or assisting it in searching for food in its 
original dwelling-places amongst marshes and lakes. Its 
natural food in these situations consisting of reptiles and 
amphibia, it must often find it necessary to go beyond the 
depth of even its long legs, while from the structure of its 
limbs it cannot swim, and it is evident that its ponderous 
awkward beak would prove an additional incumbrance. To 
overcome these difficulties the hag, when filled with air, may 
he of great service, by counteracting the weight of this 
enormous bill, and thus enabling it to procure food in deep 
water. And this view of the subject seems to be confirmed 
by the testimony of an experienced witness, by whom a 
Hurgila was seen, wading in a large piece of water, and 
proceeding to a distance from the shore, which was after- 
wards found to be beyond its depth. The conclusion there- 
fore was, that by filling this pouch with air it was enabled 
to support itself.^ That its further use may be to supply 
it with air in its soaring flights, there are also good groimds 
for supposing. When the dense vapours of the rainy 
months are dispersed, and the sun has again burst forth 
with undiminished fervour on the Indian plains, the Hurgilas 
are observed to avoid the sultry heat of the lower regions, 
by taking refuge in the higher, rising gradually till they 
appear mere specks in the firmament, or entirely lost to the 
sight. In the hot months, when not a cloud obscures the 
vault of the heavens, hundreds of these gigantic birds may 
be seen performing their graceful evolutions, and wheeling 
majestically at a vast height, enabled to remain in so thin 
* It appears to be analogous to the pouch of the Emu, and applicable 
in part to similar purposes. See p. 303. 
