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STORKS. 



THE Storks will naturally hold a place among the 

 Ardeadce, but their proper situation among them is 

 yet a little uncertain ; they are aberrant in the form, 

 and, with the next, run more into some rasorial 

 families. The Storks^ in the extended value of the 

 term, as that of a gr.oup, will include all those very 

 large birds belonging to India, South America, and 

 ]S T ew Holland, and known under the common names 

 of Jabiru, Adjutant, &c., and they are mostly re- 

 markable in the selection of some insulated eleva- 

 tion for the position of their nests. These will form 

 Several genera, but the bird of Europe, the Ciconia 

 alba, we shall consider as typical of the true Stork, 

 or 



CICONIA. Generic characters. Bill lengthened, 

 straight, very strong, sharp pointed; nostrils 

 nearly basal, pierced in the horny substance of 

 the bill, somewhat linear ; legs very long ; tibiae 

 naked ; toes four, connected by a membrane, 

 considerably developed between the outer and 

 middle toe, the posterior toe short, articulated 

 above the place of the rest ; claws short, that 

 of the middle toe not serrated ; tail compara- 

 tively short ; wings long, third and fourth quills 

 longest. 



Europe, Asia, Africa. 



Note. Often familiar ; breed on insulated eleva- 

 tions. 



