Storks ft? Cranes 



236 



clattering their mandibles loudly and rapidly together. 

 But I have never heard them do this when on the 

 wing. 



This great procession of the 20th of March seemed 

 to be the finale of all that had gone before — a mag- 

 nificent accumulation of a full army corps. This 

 beautiful flight of birds must have continued for at 

 least an hour. 



When they arrive in Europe they gradually separ- 

 ate into smaller companies, and finally into pairs. 

 They are most useful birds in devouring the locusts, 

 on which they feed their young, in places where those 

 insects are indigenous. 



I remember being told by a very keen and well- 

 known naturalist how, when he was sitting quite close 

 to a stork's nest (it must have been in some part of 

 Asia) the old birds came near him fearlessly, constantly 

 bringing locusts to the young birds. 



It is curious that the black stork should be so 

 much more unsociable in the choice of his nesting 

 places, as far as human beings are concerned. 



But in winter one sees small companies of them 

 wading in the shallows of the Nile, or standing in 

 groups of a dozen or so upon some spit of sand in mid- 

 river, accompanied by spoonbills, egrets, ruddy shel- 

 drakes, and Egyptian geese. 



It is a very great pity that the birds of the Nile 

 should be shot at as they are, principally, it would 

 seem, by Greeks and Germans. 



Of course those unsightly steamers with their 

 obtrusive " wash " in attendance, have helped a great 



