ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
7 
appear to be very varied, as it apparently eats everything 
invertebrate, also fish, frogs and snakes. It has been 
often observed killing snakes, and even killing and eating 
small cobras, although it has a dread of the full-grown 
reptile. The snakes it generally attacks and eats, are of 
the dimensions of the grass-snake, Tropidonotus stolatus , 
and the tree whip-snakes, Passerita mycterizans , and 
Dendrophis picta . The manner in which it proceeds to 
kill a snake is interesting. After having given the snake 
repeated sharp nips by its powerful bill, which prevents 
it wriggling away for any distance, it at last invariably, 
as far as these observations go, takes the snake to the 
water into which it drops it, but watching it carefully all 
the while, and if it becomes lively and looks as if meaning 
to escape, the bird seizes it again and squeezes it with 
its bill, and then returns it to the water, and this is re¬ 
peated until the snake is nearly dead, when the bird 
begins to swallow it head foremost. Sometimes consider¬ 
able difficulty attends this process, as the reptile occa¬ 
sionally resents this treatment and makes a violent effort 
to escape, the tail wriggling about at the angles of the 
bird’s mouth, and even twining round its thin neck, but 
this awkward dilemma is overcome by the bird regur¬ 
gitating the reptile, giving it another squeeze and a final 
swallow. This habit of destroying snakes renders this 
stork valuable, and it ought, therefore, to be carefully 
protected. 
In this pond, the Adjutant, another form of stork, and 
which is a very characteristic feature in the fauna of Eastern 
India, is generally to be found in captivity. It is one of 
the largest of Indian birds and is well known, as it fre¬ 
quents Calcutta and its neighbourhood during the rains, 
