ciconiida:. 



.375 



1)1/ 



"it' 



THE WHITE STORK. 



CicoNiA ALRA, Bechsteiii. 



It does not appear that the White Stork has ever been more than 

 an irregular wanderer to the British Islands; and even in 1544 Dr. 

 William Turner, writing at Cologne, expresses his surprise that a 

 bird so common in Germany should be unknown in England. 

 Later, by Merrett, Willughby and Ray i: was considered a very rare 

 visitor, but Sir Thomas Browne remarked its not unfrequent occur- 

 rence in the fens and marshes of Norfolk, where, from its proximity 

 to Holland — in which the species has long been protected — more 

 examples have since been obtained than in all the rest of Great 

 Britain. An adult female, shot about May 17th 186 1 at Woodbast- 

 wick, contained an egg ready for exclusion, which was cracked by 

 the fall of the bird ; and fully thirty specimens must have been re- 

 corded from East Anglia, chiefly in the spring. Several have been 

 noticed in our more southern counties, and on April 23rd 1S84 a 

 flock of six passed over the town of Newbury in Berkshire, flying 



