THE GIGANTIC CRANE. 
139 
with another, he immediately darted upon the guilty 
parties, and attacking them with the greatest anger 
and fierceness, put them to flight, and followed 
them : whether he killed his faithless partner or 
not was unknown, hut she never returned; and the 
deserted widower, after occasionally visiting his nest 
for a day or two, finally quitted it, and disappeared 
altogether. It is not improbable, indeed, that 
similar suspicions or prejudices may have been the 
cause of some of the mysterious meetings already 
mentioned, in which individuals were put to death. 
Of this tribe, there is one which, from its extra- 
ordinary size, shape, and appearance, deserves to be 
particularly noticed. It is called the Gigantic Crane 
( Ardea argila ), a native of the East Indies, and 
was the first of birds to meet the eye of Bishop 
Heber, on his landing in India. “ In the morning, 
as the day broke,” says he, “ we were much struck 
by the singular spectacle before us. Besides the 
usual apparatus of a place of arms, the walks, roofs, 
and ramparts of the fort, swarmed with gigantic 
birds, the Hurgila, larger than the largest Turkey, 
and twice as tall as the Heron, which, in some 
respects, they much resemble, except that they have 
a large blue and red pouch under the lower bill, in 
which, we were told, they keep such food as they 
cannot eat at the moment. These birds share with 
the jackalls, who enter the fort through the drains, 
the post of scavenger ; but unlike them, instead of 
shunning mankind day and night, they lounge about 
with perfect fearlessness all day long, and almost 
jostled us from our paths.” The bishop's informa- 
tion, however, respecting this pouch, is not correct ; 
