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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1885.
The pouch and long legs sufficiently iden- tify this bird with the well-known character. istics of the adjutant.
Babar describes the adjutant under the name ding. A tame one in his possession, he says, once swallowed a shoe well shod with iron, and on another occasion a good sized fowl, feathers and all !
REPTILES. 25. TORTOISE (Xelán). Trionya, Sp. Pia true river Tortoise. In reference to this animal, Ælian" tells us that "it is found in India, where it lives in the rivers. It is of immense size, and it has & shell not smaller than a full-sized skiff (rkán) which is capable of holding ten medimnoi (120 gallons) of pulse."
I have not been able to find any account of the maximum sizes to which the shells of the Indian species of Trionya attain, but I believe they do exceed four feet. Ælian's account is too vague, and probably too much exaggerated, for any closer identification. There is a marine chelonian found in the Bay of Bengal, called Dermatochelys coriacea, the shell of which, according to Theobald, measures 66 inches over the curve.
It is difficult to suggest a name for the land tortoise, which Ælian describes as being the Bize of a clod of earth when turned by the plough in a yielding soil, as it might belong to several of the genera represented in Western India. He states that "they are said to cast their shells," which is of course an impossibility. He concludes by saying "they are fat things, and their flesh is sweet, having nothing of the sharp flavour of the sea-tortoise." An exact identification of this animal, so superior to the turtle, should prove of interest to aldermen!
Forbes in his Oriental Memoirs (Vol. I. p. 176) speaks with much approval of eating a species of land tortoise in Gujarât. 26. THE SERPENT A SPAN LONG
("opis omapaios). Eublepharis Sp.-Biskhuprá of the natives.
Photios and Ælian" describe, on the authority of Ktêsias, a snake, which I feel un
able to identify with any degree of certainty. The account by the former is the more concise of the two, and is as follows :-"In India there is a serpent a span long, in appearance like the most beautiful purple, with a head perfectly white, but without any teeth. The creature is canght on those very hot mountains, whose rivers yield the sardine-stone. It does not sting, but on whatever part of the body it casts its vomit, that place invariably putrefies. If suspended by the tail, it emits two kinds of poison-one like amber, which oozes from it while living, and the other black, which oozes from its carcass. Should about a sesamumseed's bulk of the former be administered to anyone, he dies the instant he swallows it, for his brain runs out throngb his nostrils. If the black sort be given it induces consumption, but operates so slowly that death scarcely ensues in less than a year's time."
The lizard named above, the biskhupra of the natives, though toothless, is regarded as being very poisonous, and on this account I suggest, but with hesitation, that it may be the animal. It may, however, have been a trne snake.
27. The SKOLEX (Exáng). Crocodilus, vel Gavialis.-The Crocodile,
or Gharial. Several authors who have derived their information from Ktësias give accounts of the skôlés. The most complete is that by Æliano as follows :-“The river Indus has no living creature in it except, they say, the skôléx, a kind of worm, which to appearance is very like the worms that are generated and nurtured in trees. It differs, however in size, being in general seven cubits in length, and of such a thickness that a child of ten could scarcely clasp it round in his arms. It has a single tooth in each of its jaws, quadrangular in shape, and above four feet long. These teeth are so strong that they tear in pieces with ease whatever they clutch, be it a stone or be it a beast, whether wild or tame. In the daytime these worms remain hidden at the bottom of the river, wallowing with delight in its mud and sediment, but by night they come ashore in search of prey, and whatever animal they
* Hist. Anim., Ivi. 14. & Ecloga in Photii, Bibl. lxxii, 16. e Hist. Anim., iv. 36. cf. Anc. India, by J. W.
M'Crindle, p. 49.
De Nat. An. v. 3. Cf. Ans. India, by J. W. M'Crindle, pp. 7, 23, 27, 56, 58.
