CICONIID^E C1CONIA 39 



The following are localities : Cape Colony Cape div. (S. A. Mus.), 

 Port Elizabeth, irregular visitor (Brown), King William's Town, 

 irregular migrant (Trevelyan), Orange Eiver, near Aliwal North, 

 February (Whitehead), Delpoortshope, in Barkly West, in summer 

 (Holub), Setlagoli, in Maf eking (Bryden) ; Natal Upper Umkomas 

 dist. (Woodward), Colenso, November (Eeid), Newcastle, Upper 

 Bushmans River and Mooi River, November, December (Sparrow) ; 

 Transvaal Limpopo River in large flocks (Buckley), Potchefstroom, 

 rare (Ayres), near Johannesburg, common (Haagner), Lydenburg 

 .dist., in summer (Kirby) ; Bechuanaland Lake Ngami (Andersson); 

 Rhodesia Ramaqueban River, near Tati, November (Gates), 

 Feira on the Zambesi, December (Stoehr in S. A. Mus.) ; German 

 South-west Africa Ondonga and North Damaralarid (abundant in 

 rainy season), South Damaraland, occasionally (Andersson). 



. Habits. One of the most familiar birds of Holland and 

 .Germany, where it enters abundantly into all popular songs and 

 fables, the White Stork is in South Africa specially esteemed for 

 its locust-devouring propensities. It usually arrives in October or 

 November, in large flocks of 300 or 400 birds, which disperse over 

 the country, and hunt for insects during the day, while at night 

 they resort to tall trees, generally Yellow-woods, to roost. Together 

 with the Wattled Starling (Diloplms carunculatus) and the Pratin- 

 cole (Glareola nordmanni), they follow the flights of locusts and feed 

 largely upon them, and in consequence of this their movements are 

 very irregular. 



No properly authenticated instance of the White Stork breeding 

 in South Africa is known, though Mrs. Barber and Mr. Seebohm 

 both give unconfirmed rumours on the subject. Major Sparrow, 

 too, writes to me that in the upper part of Natal, where the bird is 

 common in November and December, he has been told of the exist- 

 ence of nests of the species, though he has never found one himself. 



In Holland and Germany the nest, which is built of sticks, and 

 added to year after year, is usually placed on buildings, or often on 

 old cart wheels set up for the use of the birds; the eggs, three to r 

 five in number, are pure white, and measure about 2-8 x 2-1. 



579. Ciconia nigra. Black Stork. 



Ardea nigra, Linn., Syst. Nat. i, p. 235 (1766). 



Ardea chrysopelargus, A. A. H. Lichtenstein, Cat. Per. Nat. Bar. 



Hamb., p. 29 (1793). 

 Ciconia nigra, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 315 (1867) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi, 



p. 309, pi. 406 (1873) ; Holub # Pelzeln, Orn. Sud-Afr. p. 287 (1882) ; 



