485 



CICONIA NIGRA. THE BLACK STORK. 



Ardea nigra. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 23-5. 

 Ardea nigra. Lath. Ind. Ornith. II. 677. 

 Black Stork. Mont. Linn. Trans. XII. 19. 

 Cicogne noire. Ciconia nigra. Temm. Man. d'Orn. II. 561. 

 Ciconia nigra. Black Stork. Flem. Brit. Anim. 97. 

 Black Stork. Ciconia nigra. Selb. Illustr. II. 48. 

 Ciconia nigra. Black Stork. Jen. Brit. Vert. An, 193. 

 Ciconia nigra. Bonap. Comp. List. 46. 



Bare part of the sides of the head very small, and smooth ; 

 loral spaces partly bare ; bill and feet red ; plumage brownish- 

 black, glossed with purple and green ; breast and abdomen 

 ivhite. 



The Black Stork being of so very rare occurrence in Britain 

 that only four individuals are recorded as having been 

 obtained there, I have been obliged to have recourse to a 

 foreign specimen for the following description : — 



Male. — This species is inferior in size to the White 

 Stork, and proportionally less robust. The bill is more 

 slender, straight, stout, conical, considerably compressed, 

 tapering ; the upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, 

 the sides sloping and convex, the ridge convex, the lateral 

 grooves faint and extending to about a third from the end, 

 the edges sharp and direct, with a slight notch close to the 

 small deflected tip ; the lower mandible with the angle very 

 long and narrow, the dorsal line ascending and slightly 

 convex, the sides inclined outwards and somewhat convex, 

 the edges sharp and inflected, the tip acute ; the gape-line 

 straight, commencing under the eyes. 



The nostrils are nine-twelfths long, direct, sub-basal, 

 perforated as it were in the bill, near the ridge. The eyes 



