WH ITE STORK 



PLATE CLXIL FIGURE I. 



Ciconia alba^ .... BECHSTEIN. 



Ardea aconia, .... MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



THE White Stork, protected and breeding freely in 

 Holland and Belgium, is not known to nest in England, 

 where it is invariably pursued and shot if it appears. 



A heap of sticks and twigs, with any other coarse 

 materials, forms the nest of this bird. It is placed on a 

 house-top, the summit of some tall chimney, the steeple 

 of a church, or an old tower, or turret ; as well as on 

 the highest parts of the loftiest trees, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the most crowded thoroughfares. It becomes very 

 large from being accumulated year after year. 



The eggs, usually three to five in number, are pure 

 white, and of a short oval form. The young are hatched 

 after a month's incubation, and are attended to with sedulous 

 attention by both parents, until fully fledged and able to 

 provide for themselves. The old birds feed them from 

 their own bills, with food they have previously swallowed. 



Only one brood is reared in the year. 



