i'2 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



and there to breed, notably about the ruins of deserted cities. They are 

 never molested by the natives, and are looked on as a sacred bird. 



The Stork, though now only a straggler in Britain, is a summer 

 visitant to all the neighbouring countries of the Continent, wherever there 

 are marshes. In North Africa also it is only a summer resident, wintering 

 in Central and Southern Africa. Through Asia it is found as far as 

 Japan, and in winter in India. 



240. Ciconia nigra. (Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 235.) Black Stork. 

 Arab., ^'^^., Balazan. 



The Black Stork is found all through the winter in small bands on 

 the barren plains near the Dead Sea, never visiting the upper country. I 

 have been told it breeds on oak trees in Bashan, but have not met with it 

 there in my short visits to that region. 



The Black Stork is found, though in scanty numbers, throughout 

 Central and Southern Europe, from South Sweden and Denmark east- 

 wards, especially near the Danube and the Caucasus. It is also an 

 inhabitant of North and North-eastern Africa. It is rare in India, but 

 common on the Amoor. I have frequently met with it on the Euphrates, 

 but always solitary. 



FAMILY, PLATALEID.^. 



241. Platalea leticorodia. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 231. Spoonbill. 



The Spoonbill is only an occasional visitor to Palestine. I have seen 

 it only in a local collection at Jerusalem. 



It inhabits Central Europe, all the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean, North-east Africa, South-western Asia, the Caspian, 

 Persia, India, and China. 



242. Ibis falcinellns. (Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 241.) Glossy Ibis. 



I have only occasionally seen the Glossy Ibis in Palestine, and it is not 

 there, as in Algeria, a certain companion of the Buff-backed Heron 

 in the same proportion of the black sheep to the white in a flock. 



The Glossy Ibis ranges over the greater part of the temperate and 



