THE LIVING WORLD. 
387 
stork family for its. several singular features, as will appear. The bill is very 
large, but uniform in shape, terminating in a very sharp point; it is used as a 
weapon (and a powerful one it is) as well as for taking its food. In India the 
bird is so highly regarded for its services as a scaven¬ 
ger that it frequents the streets of towns and cities 
with all the abandon that distinguishes the English 
sparrow. So powerful is the bill and so large the 
oesophagus, that the adjutant can easily swallow, as 
it frequently does, a full-grown cat or a fowl. The 
carcase of larger animals is easily torn in pieces and 
devoured with remarkable expedition. It also kills and 
eats large snakes and other reptiles, in which capacity 
it performs a very useful service to man. 
This creature is so nearly domesticated, by reason 
of the protection given it, that upon small invitation 
it will adapt itself to civilization by readily becoming 
a house-bird, but it never ceases to be an incor¬ 
rigible thief, on which account it is unpopular as a 
pet. They have been known to enter a house and 
seize upon a baked fowl prepared for other palates, and 
swallow it before an incensed housewife could recover 
it. Though belonging to the stork family, the adjutant adjutant. 
has a decidedly vulturine aspect, in that the head and 
neck are destitute of feathers, and are covered with fleshy excrescences or 
wattles. It has also the ostrich’s digestive powers, being able to swallow a 
