362 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
brown; the legs and toes are greenish brown; the 
claws are darker. 
The eggs are of a uniform pale brownish colour, 
a shade or two darker than the usual hue of the 
common Pheasant’s egg, but the shell is not of that 
glossy surface, the texture being somewhat coarser.* 
Buack Srork, Ciconia nigra. I include this very 
rare bird amongst the Birds of Somerset, on the 
authority of Colonel Montagu, who had a specimen 
which was shot in West Sedge Moor, adjoining the 
parish of Stoke St. Gregory, Somersetshire, on the 
13th of May, 1814. Mr. Anstice, who communicated 
the fact to Montagu, and afterwards sent him the 
bird alive, gives the following account of it:—‘‘ As 
the bird agrees in every respect with the description 
given of the Stork, except that it is brown or cine- 
reous everywhere but on the belly, which is white, 
I suppose it to be the young bird of that species. 
The man assures me it has fed on eels and other 
small fish since Tuesday last, the 31st.” The bird 
was afterwards sent to Colonel Montagu, who says 
of it, “If I can furnish fish enough he is likely to 
live, and to repay me by the examination of his 
manners, and perhaps some change in his plumage, 
which I think a few dark glossy green feathers on 
his back indicate. It is certainly the Black Stork, 
and the only instance of this bird having varied its 
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* See ‘ Zoologist’ for 1868 (Second Series, p. 1220). 
