CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS. 
191 
idea of making his melon-beds on a thick layer of 
floating-plants; and, indeed, it is peculiarly a Chinese 
idea to make use of the water for a dwelling-place, and to 
turn it into a kitchen-garden; in short, the Chinese bird 
is, in comparison, decidedly more clever than the 
corresponding species of Asia and America. Again, the 
highly-revered scavenger of the towns and sexton of 
the Ganges, the Maraboo or Adjutant (.Leptoptilos argala ), 
which, with its African cousin, furnishes the well-known 
feathers used as plumes, is deserving of mention. A 
fine is inflicted on any person who kills these useful 
animals. They, conscious of the protection afforded by 
man, live in quiet companionship with him, although his 
dead body becomes their prey after all. These birds 
stalk undismayed through the streets of large towns, or 
drawn up in long rows on the banks of a stream, await 
the dead, nursed in its soft arms—their last resting- 
place. It may be further remarked that aquatic birds— 
distributed, as they are, universally over the whole 
world—have, in Asia, forms that are peculiarly charac¬ 
teristic of that country. 
We will now bestow a glance upon Africa, towards 
which the eyes of the whole civilized world are now 
turned—Africa, “ that riddle of a triangle to the Ancient 
World/’ which thousands of years have been spent in 
exploring, with no other result than to leave us 
acquainted with its borders. And now-a-days fresh 
discoveries are made every day, while the old saying 
of the Romans, Semper aliquid novi ex Africa , remains 
incontrovertible still. Africa is always furnishing some¬ 
thing new. The characteristic bird of Central Africa, 
a creature which resembles a very marvel of fairy-land,— 
I mean Balceniceps Bex , the Root-bill, or .Shoe-bill, as the 
