THE STORK TRIBE 



20/1 



THIS STORK TRIBE 

 Family ClCONIID^ 



The storks may be distinguished externally from the herons by the absence of 

 pectination on the inner edge of the claw of the third toe, by the metatarsus being 

 covered with reticulate scales, by the absence of powder-down patches on the sides 

 of the rump, and by the feathering on the under surface of the lower mandible not 

 extending in advance of the line of the nostrils. In the skeleton the furcula, which 

 is generally U-shaped, is characterized by the absence of any median projection 

 into its angle. All storks have short triangular tongues, whereas herons (except 

 the boatbill) have long ones; and with the exception of two genera, they are char- 

 acterized by the rings of the bronchial tubes being complete. There are certain 

 other anatomical features, into the consideration of which it will be necessary to 

 enter. As supplemental characteristics, it may be mentioned that in all the mem- 

 bers of the family the body is plump; the beak in the form of a long compressed 

 cone, with a sharp point, but may be either turned up at the extremity, or gaping 

 in the middle; the leg is long, strong, and naked for a considerable distance above 

 the ankle; the toes are short, and 

 the three foot ones connected by a 

 short basal web; the wings large, 

 and the short and rounded tail 

 with twelve feathers. The con- 

 tour feathers of the head and neck 

 may be either narrow and elon- 

 gated, or short and rounded; while 

 in some cases they may become 

 woolly or hairy, or even, in old 

 age, with horny lance-like tips. 

 The two sexes may be distin- 

 guished by a difference in size, 

 while the colors of the young are 

 duller than those of the old birds. 

 Storks, of which there are some 

 twenty species, have a world-wide 

 distribution; those inhabiting the 

 northern regions of the globe 

 being migratory. They are all 



diurnal in their habits, and the only sound they utter is produced by a sharp snap- 

 ping of the beak. Extinct genera carry the family back to the early part of the 

 Miocene period. 



The true storks are characterized by their perfectly-straight sharp 

 True Storks Dea ^ S) j n t he horny covering of which the nostrils are perforated, by 

 the webs of the front toes extending to their first joints, and by the third, fourth, 



FURCUIvA OF STORK. 



