, 
BLACK STORK. 529 
CICONIA NIGRA. 
BLACK STORK. 
(PLate 37.) 
Ciconia fusca, Briss. Orn. v. p. 862 (1760). 
Ardea nigra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 235 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum—(Tem- 
minck), (Degland § Gerbe), (Naumann), (Dresser), &c. 
Ardea chrysopelargus, Licht. Cat. Rer. Nat. Rar. sp. 284 (1793). 
Ciconia nigra (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. §c. Brit. Mus, p. 33 (1816). 
Melanopelargus niger (Linn.), Reichenb. fide Bonap. Consp. ii. p. 105 (1857). 
The Black Stork is another of those birds for whose introduction into 
the British list we are indebted to the industry of Colonel Montagu, who 
described an example which was caught alive in May 1814 on West Sedge 
Moor in Somersetshire (Mont. Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 19). After that 
date there is no record of the Black Stork having been obtained in this 
country until 1831, between which year and 1867 eleven examples are 
recorded. Of these one occurred in Devonshire, one in Somerset, two in 
Dorset, one in Oxfordshire, two in Kent, one in Suffolk, one in Norfolk, 
and two in Yorkshire. There is no reliable evidence of its ever having 
occurred in either Scotland or Ireland. Of the English occurrences two 
were obtained in May, two in August, one in October, and two in November, 
the dates of the others not being known. ‘This bird must therefore be 
regarded as an accidental straggler to England during spring and autumn 
migration. It is probable that the less frequent occurrence of late years 
of this and other accidental visitors is owing to the rapid increase of 
population in Western Europe since the introduction of railways on the 
continent. 
The Black Stork has a much wider range than the White Stork, bemg 
found from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is a summer visitor to Europe, 
formerly breeding in the principal forest-districts south of lat. 55°. It 
has occurred twice in Norway, and still breeds in the extreme south of 
Sweden. It has been exterminated during the breeding-season in many 
parts of Europe, and is now only found on migration in France, Holland 
and Belgium, and the greater part of Germany; but it still breeds near 
Hanover, in Pomerania, in the valley of the Danube, andin Spain. In 
Italy and Greece it is only known as a spring and autumn migrant; but it 
breeds in South Russia, and is said to be a resident in the Caucasus. In 
the valleys of the Volga and the Obb it occurs as far north as lat. 55° ; 
and is a regular summer migrant to the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal 
and throughout the valley of the Amoor. It is said to have occurred in 
VOL. II. 2M 
