390 BLACK STORK. 



and is even said to visit Madeira. Eastward it breeds in Palestine, 

 and can be traced — through Persia, Turkestan, Siberia up to 55° N. 

 lat., and Mongolia — to China, where it nests on cliffs in the moun- 

 tains near Pekin ; while flocks winter in India as far south as the 

 Deccan. It is found throughout Northern Africa, from Morocco 

 to Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia ; and appears to be generally 

 distributed during our cold season down to Cape Colony. 



Unlike the White Stork, which frequents the society of man, the 

 Black Stork has its breeding-haunts in the most secluded spots, and 

 generally in marshy woods, where it builds its nest in high trees. 

 Mr. H. J. Elwes has described one in Jutland as a large and heavy 

 mass of sticks, lined with tufts of green moss, and situated about 

 thirty-five feet from the ground, in a good-sized beech ; another 

 was on an old nest of the White-tailed Eagle, in a smaller tree 

 overlooking a wide swampy valley in the forest ; and the late Mr. 

 Seebohm found similar structures in oaks and firs. In Spain, 

 Bulgaria and Turkey, clefts and ledges of cliffs are also used. The 

 4-5 eggs are coarse in texture and of a dull greyish-white colour, 

 while, when the shell is held up to the light the lining membrane 

 shows gree?i, whereas it is yellowish in the egg of the White Stork ; 

 the dimensions also are smaller, being about 2*6 by 2 in. The male 

 stands by the female whilst she is sitting, and little fear of intruders 

 is shown. Incubation commences in the latter half of April, and, 

 as a rule, the Black Stork arrives at its northern breeding-stations 

 rather earlier than its congener ; while it leaves later in the autumn, 

 and has once been obtained in Sweden in winter. Its food consists 

 largely of fish ; but frogs, reptiles, small mammals, and aquatic 

 insects are also eaten. The young utter a peculiar guttural note ; 

 the adults, however, merely make a clattering noise with their 

 bills. The illustration was taken from a bird which lived in the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park for about 

 thirty years. 



The adult has the head, neck, upper breast and mantle glossy 

 black, with blue, purple, copper-coloured and green reflexions ; under 

 parts below the breast white ; bill, orbits, pouch, legs and feet coral- 

 red. Length 38 in. ; wing 21 in. The sexes are alike in plumage. 

 In the young bird the upper feathers are dull metallic-brown, 

 margined with dirty-white; and the bill and legs are olive-green, 

 afterwards turning to orange-red. 



The Storks, Ibises, and Spoonbills have no powder-down tracts. 



