THE JABIRU. 
141 
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, hun- 
dreds of these gigantic birds may be seen performing 
their graceful evolutions, and wheeling majestically 
at a vast height,— enabled to remain in so thin an 
atmosphere, most probably, by the supply of air col- 
lected in this bag. 
In its appetite the Hurgila is as great a glutton as 
our Heron. Nothing comes amiss to its all-digesting 
stomach. A leg of mutton, and a litter of live kittens 
swallowed whole, proved equally acceptable, with the 
additional sauce of earth, bones and hair, picked up 
between times. 
The fourth genus, Jabiru, very much resembles 
the Storks, and appears to have similar habits, the 
chief distinction consisting in the form of the bill, 
which is rather fuller, and slightly curved upwards 
at the end. The skin of the neck is wrinkled, and 
BEAK OF THE JABIRU. 
so flaccid, that it hangs down like the dewlap of a 
cow, and probably may be of the same use as the 
pouch of the Hurgila above mentioned. It is, indeed, 
from considering this dewlap as an air-vessel, that 
it derives it’s name Jabiru, which, in the language of 
the Guarani Indians, in South America, signifies 
