134 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



in the following words : — " As to the Storks, I can 

 only repeat what I told you at the time ; one summer 

 evening I caught sight of a small flock of very large 

 birds flying over my Park (at Courteenhall), whose 

 flight was quite strange to me ; I forget the exact 

 number at this distance of time, but there were 

 either seven, or eleven, not more anyhow ; they were 

 some 500 yards away, flying across ; presently they 

 turned up over some trees, and the sun caught them, 

 with a background of dark cloud, I then distinctly 

 saw that their plumage was black and white, and I 

 caught a glint of red beaks and legs, their size was 

 larger than that of our Common Heron, and by 

 a process of exhaustion I rapidly arrived at the 

 conclusion that they must be Storks ; in fact, I called 

 the attention of the people with me to them by 

 saying ' Look ! look ! there is a flock of Storks ! ' 

 and no one suggested that there was any doubt about 

 it." Mr. W. Tomalin in a letter bearing date 

 December 2, 1888, writes: — "In the summer of, 

 I believe, 1875, I saw six White Storks high up 

 in the air one evening, flying in the direction of 

 Courteenhall from Northampton. I told Sir H. Wake, 

 Bart., of the cuxumstance a day or two afterwards, 

 and he told me that he happened to be standing in 

 the front of his house, looking towards Northampton, 

 when he saw them, and he was certain they were not 

 Herons, of that I am also certain." The above is 

 the only approximate date given by either of my 

 correspondents, " the time " mentioned by Sir Here- 

 wald referring only to that of his first mention of the 

 occurrence to me. There is no evidence to prove 

 that the Stork ever bred in our country, though there 

 is no doubt that before firearms and bird-collecting 



