ADJUTANT
s. A bird so called (no doubt) from its comical resemblance to a human figure in a stiff dress pacing slowly on a parade-ground. It is the H. haṛgīla , or gigantic crane, and popular scavenger of Bengal, the Leptoptilus argala of Linnæus. The H. name is by some dictionaries derived from a supposed Skt. word haḍḍa-gila , 'bone-swallower.' The compound, however appropriate, is not to be found in Böhtlingk and Roth's great Dictionary. The bird is very well described by Aelian, under the name of Κήλα , which is perhaps a relic of the still preserved vernacular one. It is described by another name, as one of the peculiarities of India, by Sultan Baber. See PELICAN.
Historical Citations (6)
"The feathers known as Marabou or Comercolly feathers, and sold in Calcutta, are the tail-coverts of this, and the Lept. Javanica, another and smaller species" (Jerdon). The name marabout (from the Ar. murābit, 'quiet,' and thence 'a hermit,' through the Port. marabuto) seems to have been given to the bird in Africa on like reason to that of adjutant in India. [Comercolly, properly Kumārkhāli, is a town in the Nadiya District, Bengal. See Balfour, Cycl. i. 1082.] c. A.D. 250.—"And I hear that there is in India a bird Kēla, which is 3 times as big as a bustard; it has a mouth of a frightful size, and long legs, and it carries a huge crop which looks like a leather bag; it has a most dissonant voice, and whilst the rest of the plumage is ash-coloured, the tail-feathers are of a pale (or greenish) colour."—Aelian, de Nat. Anim. xvi. 4.
"One of these (fowls) is the dīng, which is a large bird. Each of its wings is the length of a man; on its head and neck there is no hair. Something like a bag hangs from its neck; its back is black, its breast white; it frequently visits Kābul. One year they caught and brought me a dīng, which became very tame. The flesh which they threw it, it never failed to catch in its beak, and swallowed without ceremony. On one occasion it swallowed a shoe well shod with iron; on another occasion it swallowed a good-sized fowl right down, with its wings and feathers."—Baber, 321.
"In the evening excursions ... we had often observed an extraordinary species of birds, called by the natives Argill or Hargill, a native of Bengal. They would majestically stalk along before us, and at first we took them for Indians naked.... The following are the exact marks and dimensions.... The wings extended 14 feet and 10 inches. From the tip of the bill to the extremity of the claw it measured 7 feet 6 inches.... In the craw was a Terapin or land-tortoise, 10 inches long; and a large black male cat was found entire in its stomach."—Ives, 183-4.
"The next is the great Heron, the Argali or Adjutant, or Gigantic Crane of Latham.... It is found also in Guinea."—Pennant's View of Hindostan, ii. 156.
"Every bird saving the vulture, the Adjutant (or argeelah) and kite, retires to some shady spot."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 3.
Ball (Jungle Life, 82) describes the "snake-stone" said to be found in the head of the bird.]
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.