140 
THE GIGANTIC CRANE. 
it having been ascertained that this hag is not at 
all connected with the gullet, and has, therefore, no 
reference to food, but 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 bag, when filled with air, may 
be of great service, by conteracting 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 afterwards 
found to be beyond its depth. The conclusion, 
therefore, 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 grounds 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 ob- 
served to avoid the sultry heat of the lower regions, 
by taking refuge in the higher, rising gradually 
* It appears to be analogous to the pouch of the Emu, 
and applicable in part to similar purposes. See p. 116 . 
