268 
Mr. E. Blyth on the Calcutta 1 Adjutant/ 
specimen of Colymhus, but I find I cannot reconcile it with my 
description of C. glacialis. Here is a note of the bird they have 
shot in Amoy harbour :— 
Length 25 in., wing 11^. Bill along ridge 1—along edge 
of lower mandible 3^-. Tarse 3 in.; 1st toe in., 2nd 2^, 
3rd 2J, 4th 4. 
Tarsus on the inward surface, surface of the toes, and median 
line of webs pale bluish grey variegated with purplish black, 
which forms the pervading colour of the outward side of the 
tarse and the under surface of the feet. Bill flesh-colour with 
blackish-brown culmen. The upper head and neck are grey; 
and the back and scapulars spotted with white on a greenish- 
black ground. All the under parts are pure white. Now 
Schlegel, I find, puts down the Colymhus that winters at Japan 
as the C. arcticus ; but this assuredly does not answer that species. 
Is our bird the C. adamsii *, not long since described by 
G. B. Gray ? or is it a species with which the Editor of f The 
Ibis' is not acquainted ? 
Yours, &c., Robert Swinhoe. 
British Consulate, Amoy, February 20th, 1861. 
XXVI.— Note on the Calcutta ‘ Adjutant' (Leptoptilus argala). 
By Edward Blyth, Curator of the Asiatic Society's Museum, 
Calcutta. 
In ( Chambers's Journal' for January of the current year, p. 40, 
I observe an article entitled “ The Calcutta Adjutant, or Hur- 
ghila of the natives of Bengal," of which term its technical spe¬ 
cific appellation is of course a corruption. It contains a deal of 
nonsense, which I forthwith proceed to criticise and correct. 
We are told, in the fourth paragraph, that these gaunt birds 
“ have a long, straight, broad bill, much depressed', the upper man¬ 
dible flattened, and terminated by a very strong hook [!] ; the 
lower formed by two bony branches, which are flexible, and united 
at the tip; from these branches are suspended a naked skin, in 
* C. adamsii is the Pacific form of C. glacialis, and generally resembles 
the latter, except in its larger yellowish-white bill. See Mr. Gray’s de¬ 
scription (P. Z. S. 1859, p. 167)- It is probable that Mr. Swinhoe’s bird 
may be C. adamsii in immature plumage.— Ed. 
