WHITE STORK 323 



a one I saw in a high tree near Amsterdam, While Feeding 

 in the meadows^ it walks with a grave aspect and stately gait. 

 Its flight is powerful^ with the legs carried nearly straight 

 out behind it, and the feet close together ; both the legs and 

 the head are rather lowered, as if the feet at one end and 

 the head at the other were too heavy to be carried quite 

 horizontally, thus forming a segment of a circle. 



When the Stork alights on the ground, it stretches its 

 legs widely apart, which gives it a strange and ungainly 

 appearance. While feeding, it utters an inward gurgling 

 note as if expressing satisfaction. I am not aware that it 

 has any other vocal sound, but it makes a great clattering 

 with its bill, throwing it on the back of the neck, almost 

 between the shoulders, at other times pressing it to the 

 breast while making this sound. 



In my own notes I have the following : — A bird, positively 

 asserted to be a Stork, was observed on the 15th of Septem- 

 ber, 1841, standing on a building at Blackrock, Brighton, 

 which, on being approached to within about thirty yards, 

 flew out to sea and was lost sight of. In October 1859 

 another was shot at Selsey. As I knew that two Storks 

 had been killed near Brighton, I wrote to Messrs. Brazenor, 

 of the Lewes Road, who preserved them, and received the 

 following reply from his son : — " The two Storks you ask 

 about were bought by my father, and are now iu the Brighton 

 Museum. They were killed on the Race Hill by the late 

 Mr. Richardson at one shot, on September 6th, 1873. They 

 were in a very exhausted state, and allowed a very near 

 approach. There is no doubt they were genuine wild birds, 

 for although a notice of their being killed was published in 

 many papers, we never heard of any having escaped from 

 confinement.^' 



Mr. Ellman, writing to me in March 1853, mentions a 

 White Stork which was shot about three years before in 



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