Adjutant (Leptoptilus argala), a stork-like bird, common during summer in India. It is especially frequent in the north, and extends southwards to the Malay peninsula. Generally stork-like in appearance, it stands about 5 feet high, and measures 14 or 15 feet from tip to tip of extended wings. The four-sided pointed bill is very large; the head and neck are almost bare; and a sausage-like pouch, sometimes 16 inches long, and apparently connected with respiration, hangs down from the base of the neck. While feeding largely on carcasses and offal about the towns, it also fishes for living food, and sometimes devours birds and small mammals. According to popular superstition in
India, the brain of the living bird contains a stone valuable as a poison antidote. The loose under-tail feathers of this and of another species (the Marabou stork) are used for decorative purposes.