Greater Adjutant - in Culture

In Culture

Aelian described the bird in 250 AD in his De Natura Animalium as the Kila, a large bird from India with a crop that looks like a leather bag. In Victorian times the Greater Adjutant was known as the Gigantic Crane and later as the Asiatic Marabou. It was very common in Calcutta during the rainy season and large numbers could be seen at garbage sites and also standing on the top of buildings. Its local name hargila is derived from the Sanskrit hadda-gilla, which means "bone-swallower", and John Latham used it to give the species the binomial name, Ardea argala. At that time it was a belief that it was protected by the souls of dead Brahmins. The birds in Calcutta city were considered as efficient scavengers and an act was passed to protect them anyone who killed the bird had to pay a fine of fifty rupees. The old emblem of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation included two Adjutant Storks facing each other. Captured birds, probably from Calcutta reached menageries in Europe during this period.

An Indian myth recorded by the Moghul emperor Babur was that a magic "snake-stone" existed inside the skull of the bird, being an antidote for all snake venoms and poisons. This "stone" was supposed to be extremely rare as it could only be obtained by a hunter with great skill, for the bird had to be killed without letting its bill touch the ground in which case the "stone" would evaporate instantly. Folk-medicine practitioners believed that a piece of stork flesh chewed daily with betel could cure leprosy.