68 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



in small parties, during the spring and autumn migration. The 

 range of the White Stork, like that of so many other birds, 

 extends from the Atlantic to Central Asia. It is a summer visitor 

 to the western Palgearctic region, wintering in West Africa and 

 from South Africa as far north as the Soudan. 



The Stork has attached itself to human habitation almost as 

 much as the House-martin and the Sparrow. If possible, it 

 builds its nest on the roof of a house, and in civilized countries 

 a platform of some kind, an old cart-wheel or some such struc- 

 ture, is provided for its accommodation. Occasionally several 

 nests are built upon the same roof, and a house in the middle 

 of a village is quite as eligible as one in the outskirts. The 

 old nest is used year after year, a slight addition being made to 

 it every season, so that after the lapse of years, if it happens to 

 be in a situation protected from the wind, it sometimes attains 

 to a great height. 



The nest is a very large structure, four or five feet in diameter, 

 and is built of sticks, many of them of considerable thickness, 

 mixed with lumps of earth and masses of decayed reeds ; it is 

 very shallow, and is lined with softer materials of all kinds — dry 

 grass, moss, hair, feathers, rags, bits of paper, wool, or anything 

 it can pick up. 



The eggs of the Stork are from three to five in number, dull 

 white in colour, rough in texture, and with little gloss. They 

 vary from 3'0 to 2*72 inches in length, and from 22 to 2*05 

 inches in breadth. The eggs of this bird very closely resemble 

 those of the Black Stork, but are on an average larger, and, 

 when held up to the light, are yellowish-white inside, those of 

 the Black Stork being green. 



THE BLACK STOKK. 

 (Ciconia nigra.) 



Plate 18, Fig. 1. 



The Black Stork must be regarded as an accidental straggler to 

 England during spring and autumn migration. It has a much 

 wider range than the AVhite Stork, being found from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific. It is a summer visitor to Europe, breeding in the 

 principal forest-districts south of lat. 55°. 



