Each was borne up by a pair of huge wings full five yards from tip to tip; while from the body, between, a neck of enormous length was extended horizontally--prolonged into a tapering-pointed beak, in shape like the seed-pistil of a pelargonium.
Their beaks might well have been compared to the pistil of a pelargonium; or rather the latter should be assimilated to them; since it is from this species of birds, the flower has derived its botanical cognomen.
The birds were _storks_.

Not the ordinary _Ciconia_, that makes its home among the Hollanders--or finds a still more welcome hospitality on the roof-tree of the Hungarian by the plains of the _Puszta_--but a stork of far grander dimensions; in short, a stork that is the _tallest_ of his tribe--the _Adjutant_.
On looking up, Karl recognised the species; so did Caspar, and at a glance.

It required no lengthened scrutiny--no profound knowledge of natural history, to identify the noted _adjutant_.

It only needed to have seen him before either in _propria persona_, or in a picture; but both brothers had seen specimens of the bird, in full flesh and feather, on the plains of India--in the environs of Calcutta itself.
As to the shikaree, was it likely he should be mistaken about the character of those winged giants--those tall scavengers he had seen thousands of times stalking pompously along the sandy shores of the sacred Ganges?
It was not possible for him, to have a doubt about the identity of the birds, who were now throwing their shadows over that lone lake of the Himalayas.

He had no doubt.