594 



the belly, and occasionally 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. 



" The Black Stork, perhaps, is not more delicate in the 

 choice of its food than the White species : fish appears to 

 be preferred to flesh ; but when very hungry any sort of 

 offal is acceptable. 



" All birds that pursue their migrative course by night 

 in congregation, have undoubtedly some cry by which the 

 whole assembly is kept together : yet it would appear that 

 at other times the Black Stork is extremely mute ; not a 

 single note has been heard to issue from the bird in ques- 

 tion since its captivity." 



Colonel Montagu's specimen is still preserved, with his 

 other British Birds, in the British Museum. 



Like the species last described, the Black Stork is also a 

 migratory bird, passing the winter in the southern parts of 

 Europe. In the spring it advances to high northern lati- 

 tudes to pass the summer, occasionally visiting Sweden ; 

 M. Nilsson, of Lund, naming several localities in which it 

 had been seen, and particularly describing one bird that 

 came under his examination in the month of August. 

 Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, quoting Linneus, says that 

 this bird goes to Russia and Siberia, as far as the Lena, 

 where lakes and morasses abound. The Black Stork 

 seldom comes so far to the westward as its generic com- 

 panion, the White Stork, as it is almost unknown in Hol- 

 land, and, according to Mr. Vieillot, very rare in France, 



