932 AH. OCT. 18th 152.1 to OCT. 8th 1526 AD. 499
were thrown to it, it never failed to catch it in its bill. Once it swallowed a six-nailed shoe, another time a whole fowl, wings and feathers, all right down.
The saras {Grus antigone) is another. Turks in Hindustan call it tiwa-turna (camel-crane). It may be smaller than the ding but its neck is rather longer. Its head is quite red.1 People keep this bird at their houses ; it becomes very tame.
The mdnek2 is another. In stature it approaches the saras, but its bulk is less. It resembles the lag-lag {Ciconia alba, the white stork) but is much larger ; its bill is larger and is black. Its head is iridescent, its neck white, its wings partly-coloured ; the tips and border-feathers and under parts of the wings are white, their middle black.
Another stork {lag-lag) has a white neck and all other parts black. It goes to those countries (Tramontana). It is rather smaller than the lag-lag {Ciconia alba). A Hindustani calls it yak-rang (one colour ?).
Another stork in colour and shape is exactly like the storks that go to those countries. Its bill is blacker and its bulk much less than the lag-lag's {Ciconia alba).3
Another bird resembles the grey heron {auqdr) and the laglag ; but its bill is longer than the heron's and its body smaller than the white stork's {lag-lag).
Another is the large buzak* (^black ibis). In bulk it may equal the buzzard (TurkI, sdr). The back of its wings is white. It has a loud cry.
The white buzaks is another. Its head and bill are black.
' only when young (Blanford, ii, 188).
2 Elph. MS. mank:sa or mankia; Hai. MS. m:nk. Haughton's Bengali Dictionary gives two forms of the name manek-jur and manak-yoi. It is Dissura episcopus, the white-necked stork (Blanford iv, 370, who gives manik-jor amongst its Indian names). Jerdon classes it (ii, 737) as Ciconia leucocephala. It is the beefsteak bird of Anglo-India.
3 Ciconia nigra (Blanford, iv, 369).
4 Under the Hindustani form, buza, of Persian buzak the birds Babur mentions as buzak can be identified. The large one is Inocotis papillosus, buza, kala buza, black curlew, king-curlew. The bird it equals in size is a buzzard, Turki sdr (not Persian sar, starling). The king-curlew has a large white patch on the inner lesser and marginal coverts of its wings (Blanford, iv, 303). This agrees with Babur's statement about the wings of the large buzak. Its length is 27 inches, while the starling's is 9i inches.
5 Ibis melanocephala, the white ibis, Pers. safed buzak, Bengali sabut buza. It is 30 inches long.
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
