316 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



BLACK STOEK. 



Giconia nigra (Linnaeus). S.N., i., p. 235 (1766). 



The Eev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in his Birds of Kent, 

 1844, states that this species " has been killed in Kent," 

 and most likely it was one that was found in Romney 

 Marsh prior to the above date, and now in the collection 

 of Mr. Thornhill, of Eiddlesworth. About October, 1852, 

 another was recorded by Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, 

 which was killed in the Weald of Kent. 



In the Zoologist, May 30, 1856, Mr. E. N. Dennis 

 writes : " Being at Lydd, in Kent, on May 21, I saw 

 at the shop of a bird-preserver there, of the name of 

 George Jell, a fine specimen of the Black Stork, which 

 had been killed on or about May 5, 1856, at a place 

 called Fairfield Brack, near Brenzet, and but a few 

 miles from Lydd. The account which he gave me of 

 the capture of the bird was the following : Two labourers 

 had noticed what they supposed to be a very big Heron 

 about a certain spot for three weeks ; at last one said 

 to the other, ' Heron makes an uncommon pudding, let 

 us try to shoot it.' The attempt was made and the bird 

 was shot, and forwarded by the person into whose hands 

 it fell to Mr. G. Jell. It is in the collection of Mr. 

 Clifton Simmons." 



Black Stork near Bainham. — " About the beginning 

 of July (1884) a large Heron-like bird, with black back 

 and belly white, was seen by a shepherd on an island 

 marsh near here. On September 8 Mr. Charles Gordon, 

 of Dover, being at my house, we happened to go on the 

 same marsh to shoot, and beside the shepherd's house 

 on the creek shore we found a skin of a bird very much 



