cts. It disappeared, however, partly because it
was subjected to a good deal of persecution, but mainly because an
improved method of agriculture took away its occupation.

In India the stork's cousin is called the Adjutant, and a very
appropriate name it is. It is a familiar figure in most of the towns and
villages where its scavenging is of the greatest use. But the adjutant
is not endowed with so much wisdom as we should naturally expect such a
serviceable bird to possess. The following notes about an adjutant's
curious ways have been sent to the Editor of LITTLE FOLKS by a lady in
Calcutta, and will be read with interest.

"When the rainy season comes in Calcutta, the adjutants are soon seen
resting on one leg on the house-tops, kneeling in all kinds of funny
places, or stalking very grandly through the wet grass. Sometimes in the
dim lamp-light they look as they stand about on the edge of the flat
roofs like stiff, badly-arranged ornaments, and sometimes ten or twelve
settle on some tree, when it seems as if their heavy bodies must weigh
it down.

"They do not often come in numbers into the gardens of houses or the
outskirts of the town, but one was a very faithful visitor for a little
while in the neighbourhood of a house which was not at all central. This
house has a garden or compound, as Indians would say, which is connected
by a gate with a large square containing a large tank. There are many of
these tanks, in appearance like ponds or reservoirs at home, about
Calcutta and the neighbourhood. The natives fetch water to drink from
all, and in some they bathe and wash clothes. The tank now to be
described is enclosed by a wall with gates to the main road and into the
compounds of houses which come up to it. Round the tank is a broad
gravel-walk, and on either side the walk grows long rank grass. Frogs
abound in this grass, and crickets come out of holes in the ground, and
make a terrible whistling at night. For some time no adjutants appeared
in this tank square to feast on the rich supply of frogs; but at last
one day an adjutant was seen walking down the grass. With
self-important step and craning his long neck forward, he came slowly
on, hurrying a little when some frightened frog foolishly made a hop out
of his way. At last he reached a gate leading into one of the private
compounds, and there he paused. What he saw inside no one can guess, as
the grass is kept short; and except in one corner far, far away