196 THE NESTS AND EGGS OE 



to its old nest. This may either be built upon the roof 

 of a house or other building, the tower of a mosque or a 

 church, the ledge of a precipice (as I remarked at Con- 

 stantine), or in the branches of a tree. The nest varies 

 a good deal in size, the largest structures (five or six 

 feet in height) being the oldest, and the accumulation of 

 many years. It is generally a huge pile of sticks four 

 or five feet across, amongst which twigs, dead reeds, and 

 lumps of earth or clay are mixed ; the cavity containing 

 the eggs is shallow, and lined with almost any soft 

 material that can be procured — dry grass, rags, feathers, 

 straws, masses of hair, bits of paper, moss, or wool. The 

 Stork sits closely and very tamely, with its long legs 

 folded up beneath its body, and its equally long neck 

 drawn in between the shoulders. If disturbed it wheels 

 round above the spot, or glides to and fro past the face 

 of the cliff, but quite silent. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eees of the White Stork are from three to five in 

 number. They are rough in grain, unpolished, and pure 

 white. Average measurement, 2-8 inches in length, by 

 2" I inches in breadth. Incubation, performed chiefly, if 

 not entirely, by the female, lasts from twenty-eight to 

 thirty-one days. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the White 

 Stork are slightly larger than those of the Black Stork, 

 and when empty and held up to the light are yellowish- 

 white inside, those of the latter bird being green. 



