SHELL-STORKS. 
o 
Shell Storks. 
by law in Calcutta and some other Indian cities, nothing seeming to come amiss 
to them in the way of food, from the carcase of a large animal to a dead cat, 
or from small birds to frogs and fish. Adjutants generally congregate in vast 
flocks, although in the neighbourhood of towns solitary birds may often be 
observed, either stalking about alone or standing with outspread wings to dry 
their plumage, or perched on one leg while asleep on some building or tree. 
Their flight, although heavy and flapping, is powerful in the extreme, and they 
frequently soar at immense heights in the air, from which they descend to join 
the vultures at their feasts. Writing; of the arrival of one of these birds at such 
a carnival, Sir S. Baker observes that “ a pair of long, ungainly legs, hanging 
down beneath the enormous wings, now touch the ground, and abu seen has 
arrived, and he stalks proudly towards the crowds, pecking his way with his long 
bill through the struggling vultures, and swallowing the lion’s share of the repast.” 
In the Nidong Hills the adjutant, according to Mr. C. T. Bingham, nests in vast 
numbers during November and December, and in January the parents may be 
seen feeding the young birds on the topmost pinnacles of their almost inaccessible 
rocks. The nest is a large mass of sticks and twigs, devoid of lining, and scarcely 
any depression in the centre; the number of eggs varying from two to four, and 
these being large chalky-white ovals. Occasionally, it is stated, the nests are 
placed in trees, and the young birds are thickly covered with fluffy white down. 
The shell-storks or shell-ibises as they are often called, of 
which there is one African (Anastomus lamelligerus) and one 
Indian species (A. oscitans), are much smaller birds than any of the preceding, 
from all of which they are at once distinguished by the two mandibles of the 
compressed and serrated beak being in the adult in contact at their two 
extremities, but gaping widely in the middle. On account of the second and 
third quills being the longest, the large wings are pointed, and the tail is short. 
Although the Indian species has a normal plumage, that of the African kind is 
remarkable in that the shafts of all the feathers of the throat, under-parts, and 
thighs are prolonged into small horny processes at their extremities. In colour 
the whole plumage is blackish, with green and purple reflections; the iris is red, 
the beak yellowish, and the leg and foot black. Young birds lack the horny 
plates at the tips of the feathers. In length the African species measures about 2G 
inches. The latter species is widely distributed over Central and South Africa, 
and is also met with at Mozambique. Like its Indian congener, it feeds almost 
exclusively on molluscs, especially Ampullarice, and according to Livingstone 
breeds among’ reeds, although it has also been stated to nest in trees. In the 
Barotse country the breeding-places are occupied year after year by vast numbers 
of these birds, and the natives are accustomed to make a regular harvest of the 
young. With regard to the peculiar gaping of the beak, Professor Ball writes 
that “ this was at one time supposed to be due to attrition of the edges, caused 
by the nature of the food upon which the bird is generally believed to subsist. 
Jerdon, however, stated that the bill of a young bird which he examined exhibited 
the same gaping. This I did not find to be the case with any of the large 
members which I saw. The bills were very much smaller than in the adult 
birds, were conical in shape, and the edges were in distinct apposition, or slightly 
