THE WHITE STORK. 19 



There was, of course, nowhere to spread the tent, 

 and the most that could be done was to tie it to the 

 branches, and climb up inside it, fixing the camera to 

 whatever offered. If the tent was small at the Spoon- 

 bills' colony, it was much less now, and though I managed 

 to get one leg doubled underneath me on the branch, 

 there was no room for the other and it hung dangling 

 down, and lacking ostrich-like faith in the covering of my 

 head, I felt horribly conscious of it. 



Climbing up that morning I had noticed that the young 

 Storks were sitting in a peculiar posture on their heels 

 (Plate 13), and later, when I had observed them longer, 

 this proved to be a constant habit. Perhaps at first 

 there sounds nothing very unusual in this attitude, but 

 it must be borne in mind that the " heel " of a bird, 

 properly so termed, is what is often erroneously called 

 the " knee." Ordinarily, of course, a fowl only walks 

 on its toes, what is known as the shank (viz., " sparrow 

 shanks ") being really the tarsus, or what in us is repre- 

 sented by the instep. Some birds, like the Auks, walk 

 and sit on both toes and tarsi together, that is, on the 

 whole foot, but these young Storks were resting on the 

 heel, or what roughly corresponds to our ankle joint 

 only, while the shank or tarsus was clear of the nest, and 

 inclined upwards from it, often at an angle of as much 

 as thirty degrees. 



It seemed a most uncomfortable, not to say absurd 

 position, for they were practically balancing themselves 

 on two points, and a gust of wind was sufficient to upset 

 them, and indeed on a windy day there was an incessant 

 bobbing as first one and then another lost his balance, 

 but even so for some reason they preferred the attitude 

 and at once regained it. 



The tarsus was often inclined so much upwards that 

 the toes, although dependent from its extremity, did not 

 reach the nest by inches. 



Another attitude of which the young were very fond 



