12 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



Its visits to this country are rare. Colonel 

 Montagu's tame black stork was slightly shot in 

 the wing on Sedgemoor, near the parish of Stoke 

 in Somersetshire, in May, 1814. The bone was 

 not broken, and the bird lived in the colonel's pos- 

 session, in good health, for more than a year. Like 

 the white stork, it frequently rested upon one leg ; 

 and if alarmed, particularly by the approach of a 

 dog, it made a considerable noise by reiterated 

 snapping of the bill, similar to that species. It 

 soon became docile, and would follow its feeder 

 for a favorite morsel an eel. When very hun- 

 gry it crouched, resting the whole length of the 

 legs upon the ground, and seemed to supplicate for 

 food by nodding its head, flapping its wings, and 

 forcibly expelling the air from the lungs with 

 audible expirations. Whenever it was approached, 

 the blowing, accompanied by repeated nodding of 

 the head, was provoked. It was of a mild and 

 peaceful disposition, very unlike many of its con- 

 geners ; for it never used its formidable bill offen- 

 sively against any of its prisoned companions, and 

 even submitted peaceably to be taken up without 

 much struggle. From the manner in which it 

 was observed to search the grass with its bill, there 

 could be no doubt that reptiles form part of its 

 natural food ; and the colonel inferred that even 

 mice, worms, and the larger insects probably, add 

 to its usual repast. When searching in thick grass, 

 or in the mud, for its prey, the bill was kept 

 partly open. " By this means," says the colonel, 

 " I have observed it take eels in a pond with great 

 dexterity : no spear in common use for taking that 

 fish can more effectually receive it between its 

 prongs than the grasp of the stork's open mandi- 

 bles. A small eel has no chance of escaping 

 when once roused from its lurking-place. But the 

 stork does not gorge its prey instantly like the cor- 

 morant ; on the contrary, it retires to the margin 

 of the pool, and there disables its prey by shaking 

 and beating it with its bill before it ventures to 

 swallow it. I never observed this bird attempt to 

 swim ; but it will wade up to the belly, and occa- 

 sionally thrust the whole head and neck under 

 water after its prey. It prefers an elevated spot 

 on which to repose ; an old ivy-bound weeping 

 willow, that lies prostrate over the pond is usually 

 resorted to for that purpose. In this quiescent 

 state the neck is much shortened by resting the 

 hinder part of the head on the back, and the bill 

 rests on the fore part of the neck, over which the 

 feathers flow partly so as to conceal it, making a 

 very singular appearance." 



In this attitude the bird may be seen in the Zo- 

 ological Garden in the Regent's Park, where one 

 has lived many years, and has stood for his por- 

 trait to most of the ornithological writers of the 

 day. Its likeness illustrates the works of Bennett, 

 .'Selby, Gould, Meyer, and Yarrell. 



Truly Brahminical and reflective is the air of 

 one of these old stagers. Motionless in the atti- 

 tude above described stands the black philosopher. 

 It is a lovely summer's day, but the sun and the 

 .gentle breeze floating the clouds under the blue 



sky move him not. A slight motion in the eye 

 may be detected as one of the giddy young spar- 

 rows with which the Zoological garden is infested 

 flits by, but he stirs not. At last a luckless new- 

 fledged one passes within reach of our philosopher. 

 Quick as thought the trenchant bill is darted for- 

 ward, and crack ! the little bird is seized and 

 swallowed. 



Gesner recommends that the bird should be first 

 boiled and then roasted. He describes the flesh as 

 of a reddish tinge, like that of a salmon, and to 

 his taste it seemed good and sweet ; but he adds 

 that the skin is very tough, and if this were to be 

 taken off there would, probably, be no need of the 

 boiling. 



The visitors to the garden in the Regent's Park 

 will have noticed a queer, uncouth, bald, scabrous- 

 headed, feathered form, with an enormous beak, 

 now marching in comic stateliness, at another time 

 standing on one or two stilts of legs with an air 

 of drunken gravity, and again seated with the 

 whole length of legs stretched out and resting upon 

 them, as the black stork is above described to have 

 rested. It is now some sixty years since this odd 

 form was first introduced to the ornithologists of 

 this country. At first it was commonly known by 

 the name of the " Adjutant," the title conferred 

 on it in Calcutta. Dr. Latham first described this 

 Bengal adjutant, the argala of the natives, in his 

 general synopsis, as " the gigantic crane." But, 

 in truth, there are no less than three species of 

 these worthies, forming a natural group of gigan- 

 tic storks, not only cherished, like the white stork, 

 for their services to man, but valued for the beau- 

 tiful plumes called "Marabous," from the Senegal 

 name of the African species. The extreme light- 

 ness of these long downy feathers, which are trans- 

 ferred from the sides beneath the wings and from 

 under the tail of the bird to wave over the brow 

 of beauty, where they float with every breath ot 

 air, may be conceived from Latham's experiment. 

 He weighed one of them, which was eleven inches 

 and three quarters in length and seven in breadth, 

 and balanced only eight grains. 



Temminck, in his Planches coloriees, has well 

 pointed out the difference between the marabou of 

 Africa, the argala of the Asiatic continent, and the 

 insular species probably the boorang-cambing or 

 boorong-oolar of Marsden inhabiting Java and 

 the neighboring islands. The Javanese bird sep- 

 arated by Dr. Horsfield, is probably identical with 

 the Sumatran species. 



Second only to the vultures in the eagerness 

 with which these feathered scavengers turn the 

 most disgusting substances into nutriment, the adju- 

 tants and marabous are safe from all annoyance, 

 and stalk about among the dwellings of man, the 

 privileged abaters of all nuisances. Carrion, flesb 

 and bone, everything, in short, that offends the eye 

 and the nose, enters the omnivorous maw of " the 

 large throat," " the bone-eater," " the bone- 

 taker," as this voracious utilitarian is in some 

 places termed. Snakes, lizards, frogs, and small 

 quadrupeds and birds, have small chance of life 



