probably sucked the eggs on the spot. We sought him everywhere, in the hope that he might have
preserved them, but he was not to he found. Through the kindness o f my friend I was not wholly
disappointed after all. The Black Stork laid two more eggs, which he secured and brought over to England
the following summer. These are now in my collection. They are smaller than those of Ciconia alba, from
which they may also be distinguished by a very faint greenish tinge being noticeable on closer inspection.”
More commonly the Black Stork resorts to the distant forests for the purpose o f nesting and rearing its
young, particularly those which are interspersed with streams and pools of water or marshy flats. “ There
towards the end of April,” says Mr. Hewitson, “ it builds its nest in solitude near the top of one o f the
highest trees o f the forest, for the most part upon that of the pine tree. The nest, though large, is less
than that of the White Stork ; its foundation of sticks is rendered more firm and stable by the addition of
sods of earth, the remainder of the nest being completed with finer sticks. The eggs are four in number,
very like but smaller than those of the White Stork.”
The Black Stork is only an occasional or rare visitant to our islands, in proof o f which I may mention
that Yarrell enumerates only four specimens as having been killed in any part o f them, namely—Colonel
Montagu’s bird on West Sedge Moor, in Somersetshire, in May 1814; one on the Tamar, in Devonshire,
in November 1831, now in the possession o f E. H. Rodd, Esq., of P enzance; another a t Otley, near Ipswich
in Suffolk, October 1 832; and one on the south side of Poole Harbour, November 1839 ; to these,
however, two more have been added by the Rev. F. O. Morris, namely, one killed on Market Weighton
Common, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, in October 1852, and a second, wbich Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington,
informed him had been killed in the Weald o f Kent. In addition to these Mr. A. Newton informed Mr.
Stevenson “ that Mr. Thornhill', of Riddlesworth, possesses a very fine specimen which he obtained in the
flesh more than twenty years since o f a labourer who had ju st shot it on some property o f his own in
Romney Marsh ; and in Mr. J . H. Gurney’s collection is a specimen said to have been killed at Poole in
1849, ju st ten years later than the one before mentioned from the same locality.” Besides the above,
W. Christy Horsfall, Esq., states in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1862, under the date of September 8 th, th at he had
just added to his collection a fine specimen which had been recently obtained' a t Hartlepool; and the Hon.
Augusta Annesley has called my attention to another, which her friend F. D. Hibbert, Esq., stated had been
shot on Otmoor about the middle of November 1862. To these another has yet to be added : on the 14th
o f Ju n e 1867, I received a letter from Mr. Anthony Hammond informing me that a fine Black Stork had
been shot on the banks o f the river Nar, at Westacre, in the morning o f the 19th o f May. I t had been
about the meadows in the neighbourhood for a week and was always fishing. It proved to be an adult
female, weighing over seven pounds, and is now in the fine collection o f birds a t Westacre High House.
The food o f the Black Stork is precisely the same as that o f its ally; in its search it wades deep in the water
and kills its prey by shaking and beating before swallowing it. When about to fly, the bird takes one or two
short leaps, and, when alighting, skims a short distance before touching the ground, and places its wing-
feathers in order before it moves on further. It readily submits to captivity, and never uses its powerful bill
offensively against its companions. The only sound made by the bird appears to be the clattering one
produced by the repeated snapping o f its mandibles.
Mr. Jerdon mentions, in his ‘ Birds of India,’ that there “ this bird is considered one of the finest quarries
for the B/ujri (Falco peregrinui), and the day that a Black Stork is killed is marked by the Indian Falconer
with a white stone.”
There is no difference in the colouring o f the sexes, and but little in siz e; the female is, however, a trifle
smaller than the male.
The portion shown of the principal figure is nearly of the natural size.