CLASSIFIED NOTES 551 



yellow ; claws dusky. The adult female is similar to the male, but the ornamental plumes are 

 not so strongly developed. The adults in winter are distinguished by having the long plumes 

 of the back greener, and the purplish bloom on the back of the neck absent, [w. r. i>. and T. w.] ] 



THE STORKS 



[Oui)KK : ('ictiiiiit'iiriiiex. SuBORUEH : Cici'in-'. FAMILY: Oiconi idee] 



WHITE-STORK [('i<;',nin <;<<;, tin (Linn;rus); Ciconia dlba Bechstein. French, cigogne ; 

 German, </< -ixxr;- Starch ; Italian, c!i/ot/ii ]. 



1. Description. Recognised by its red legs and beak and white plumage. The sexes are 

 ulike. Total length about 3(5 in. [914 mm.]. Primaries, primary coverts, scapulars, greater 

 coverts, and bastard wing black, glossed with green or purple ; inner primaries and secondaries 

 powdered with slate-grey on the outer webs ; bill dark red ; pouch vermilion at the gullet, 

 black anteriorly ; iris lemon-yellow ; legs and feet reddish pink ; claws black. The young 

 resembles the adult, but the quill and scapulars are not so glossy black, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds over the greater part of the Continent, Northern 

 Africa, and Western Asia. It has never bred in a wild state in the British Isles, but on the 

 Continent nests in Sweden sparingly in the south, commonly in Denmark but not in Norway 

 or Finland, in North Germany, and in Russia in the Baltic Provinces, the St. Petersburg, Pskov, 

 Smolensk, Chernigof, and Kharkof governments, becoming scarcer eastward. From these 

 limits southward it is generally distributed over the Continent south to the Mediterranean, 

 with the exception of France and Italy, while in Russia it breeds in the Crimea, and though 

 absent from the N. Caucasus is found in Transcaucasia. Though it does not nest in the 

 Mediterranean islands it is very common in North-west Africa, and also breeds in the Gold 

 Coast Hinterland (Boyd Alexander). In Asia it breeds from Asia Minor, Syria, and Turkestan 

 east into Central Asia (Yarkand), India, and Ceylon, while it has also been found breeding in 

 Rhodesia. Some light has recently been thrown on the winter migratory movements of 

 European birds by means of " ringing." West European birds apparently migrate across the 

 Sahara, and east European and west Asiatic birds through Palestine and the Nile valley to 

 South Africa, south to Cape Colony and Natal. Forty or fifty occurrences in the British Isles, 

 chiefly from East Anglia. [F. c. R. J.] 



BLACK-STORK [Ciconia nigra (Limueus). French, cigogne noir; German, schwarzer Storch ; 

 Italian, cigogna nera]. 



1. Description. Identified from the former by the head, neck, and upper parts, which are 

 black, glossed with green or purple. The sexes are alike in coloration. Total length about 

 39 in. [990 mm.]. Head, neck, fore-part of the breast, and all the plumage of the upper parts 

 black, with purple and green reflections ; chest, belly, and remainder of under parts white ; 

 iris reddish brown ; naked skin surrounding the eye red ; bill red ; legs and feet red, with an 

 orange tinge. The young bird differs in being duller, in having the head and neck dull 

 metallic brown, margined with dull white, producing a spotted appearance ; the bill and feet 

 olive-green, with a bluish tinge, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds rather sparingly in the forests of South Sweden, but 

 is almost extinct in Denmark, in Germany chiefly in Pomerania and Prussia, but also 

 sparingly in other provinces, in South Spain in small numbers, in Austro-Hungary, doubt- 

 fully in Italy, in Bosnia, Roumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and in Russia in the Baltic 

 Provinces and the governments of Novgorod, Vladimir, Kazan, and Perm. In Asia it breeds 



