Exhibit in Chicago Natural History Museum 



White Stork 



The European \vhite stork is a member of a family that has about seventeen species, 

 all but three of which live in the Old World, from Europe to Australia and Africa. 

 The so-called wood ibis of our southern states is in reality a stork. All storks are long- 

 legged, tall, imposing birds. The white stork of Europe is perhaps the best known, but 

 the marabou, with its scavenging habits, the saddle-bill stork, with its strange bill 

 ornamentation, and the open-billed stork, strangely modified to get snails out of their 

 shells, are also striking forms. The African whale-headed stork belongs to a related 

 family. 



The white stork has come to nest on the roof tops of its human neighbors, having 

 deserted its original nesting habitat on trees and cliffs. Storks are not the only birds to 

 take to human habitations, almost entirely forsaking their original habitat. The chim- 

 ney s\vifts of the United States used to nest in hollow trees; now most of them probably 

 nest in the chimneys erected by man, and it is an event to find one nesting elsewhere. 

 The barn swallow finds its home inside the outlauildings of the farm and the cliff 

 swallow outside; and the purple martin in the eastern United States has come to 

 depend entirely on bird houses. 



It is considered a good omen throughout central Europe to have a stork's nest on 

 one's house. To encourage storks the householder mav fix an old waa;on wheel on the 



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