for themselves. The old birds feed the young by inserting
their own beak within the mandibles of the young bird, and
passing from their own stomachs the half-digested remains
of their last meal. Their affection for their young has
passed into a proverb, and every one must be acquainted
with the legend of the female which, at the conflagration
of Delft, after repeated and unsuccessful attempts to carry
ofl her young, chose rather to remain and perish with them
in the general ruin than to leave them to their fate.
The White Stork feeds on reptiles, fish, aquatic insects,
worms, small mammals, and young birds. Col. E. Delme
Rad cliffe told the Editor that on one occasion he shot a
Stork which was busily occupied with a brood of young
Partridges, eight of which had already been swallowed.
Grasshoppers are a favourite food, and on the 15tli of May,
1868, the Editor observed thousands of Storks whitening
acres of ground on the plains of Andalucia, and feeding with
their heads down, just like sheep. Nine-tenths of these
biids could not possibly have been breeding in the province.
During the breeding-season Storks keep up a constant clap-
pering with their bills, and this sound may frequently be
heard proceeding from a number of birds circling in the air
at such a height as to be almost invisible.
The adult bird has the beak red; the bare skin around
the eye black ", the irides brown ; the whole of the plumage
white, except the greater wing-coverts, the primary quill-
feathers, secondaries, and tertials, which are black \ legs
and toes red; the claws brown.
The whole length is three feet six or eight inches. From
the carpal joint to the end of the primaries, twenty-three
inches.
Young birds have the quill-feathers dull black; the beak
and legs brownish-red. The nestling is covered with a
greyish-white down, and is well figured in the 4 Birds of
Great Britain ’ by the late Mr. Gould, who states that lie
piocuied it from Prof. Kaup of Darmstadt, after endeavouring
in vain to obtain a specimen from any of his numerous
German and Dutch correspondents.
HERO DIGNES. CICONIIDÆ.
Ciconia nigra (Linnæus*).
THE BLACK STORK.
Ciconia nigra.
The first occurrence of the Black Stork in a wild state
in this country was made known by Montagu, in a paper
read before the Linnean Society on the 2nd of May, 1815.
Montagu’s bird was captured on West Sedgemoor, adjoining
the parish of Stoke St. Gregory, Somersetshire, on the 13th
of May, 1814, by means of a slight shot-wound in the wing,
* Ardea nigra, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 235 (1766).
VOL. IV. G G