Dr. Latham, in his “General History of Birds,” gives some very interesting information about the habits of this bird. “One of them, a young bird about five feet high, was brought up tame, and presented to the chief of the Bananas, where M. Speakman lived; and being accustomed to be fed in the great hall, soon became familiar, daily attending that place at dinner-time, placing itself behind its master’s chair frequently before the guests entered. The servants were obliged to watch narrowly, and to defend the provisions with switches; but, notwithstanding, it would frequently seize something or other, and even purloined a whole boiled fowl, which it swallowed in an instant. Its courage is not equal to its voracity, for a child of eight or ten years old soon puts it to flight with a switch. Everything is swallowed whole, and so accommodating is its throat that not only an animal as big as a cat is gulped down, but a shin of beef broken asunder serves it but for two morsels.” Another species of Adjutant (_Leptoptilus marabou_) is found in tropical Africa. It is even uglier than the Indian bird, which has not much beauty to boast of, but is valuable not only as a scavenger, but from its furnishing those beautiful plumes called marabout feathers, which are so much used for ladies’ head-dresses. [Illustration: THE COMMON HERON. (_Ardea cinerea._)] THE habits of the Heron are peculiar. Perched on a stone, or the stump of a tree, by the solitary current of a brook, his neck and long beak half-buried between his shoulders, he will wait the whole day long, patient and unmoved, for the passing of a small fish, or the hopping of a frog; but his appetite is insatiable. This bird is about four feet long from the tip of the bill to the end of the claws; to the end of the tail about thirty-eight inches; its breadth, when the wings are extended, is about five feet. The male is distinguished by a crest or tuft of black feathers hanging from the hinder part of his head, which in chivalrous times was of great value, and held as a peculiar mark of distinction when worn above the plume of ostrich feathers. Virgil places the Heron among the birds that are affected by and foretell the approaching storm: “When watchful Herons leave their watery stand, And mounting upward with erected flight, Gain on the skies, and soar above the sight.” DRYDEN. The Heron, though living chiefly in the vicinity of marshes and lakes, forms its nest on the tops of the loftiest trees. It resembles the rook in its habits: a great number of Herons living together in what is called a Heronry, as rooks do in a rookery. The female lays four large eggs, of a pale green colour; the natural term of this bird’s life is said to exceed sixty years. In England, Herons were formerly ranked among the royal game, and protected as such by the laws; and when falconry was in fashion, the pursuit of the Heron was a favourite amusement.