42 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



northern than in its southern and eastern regions. It ranges throughout the 

 whole of Africa, breeding in the Mediterranean region. In Asia it is found nesting 

 in southern Siberia, east to China, and throughout the Indian Peninsula. 



In full plumage the Black Stork has the whole head, neck, chest, back, wings. 

 and tail, glossy black, with metallic purple reflections, especially on the top and 

 back of the head ; the lower axillaries, chest, and whole of the underside pure 

 white ; the beak, the legs, and the bare skin round the eye and under the throat 

 bright scarlet. Total length about 35 inches ; bill yf inches long. The female 

 is similar to the male, but not so glossy. The immature birds are brown, and 

 without the purple and coppery metallic reflections of the adults. There are also 

 to be found some white tips to the feathers of the head and neck. 



In its habits the Black Stork differs very much from the Ciconia alba. It 

 rarely selects a nesting place near the dwellings of man, and it consequently never 

 figures in his folk-lore, and is unknown to his affections. It prefers to rear its 

 family on high trees, in the solitude of the forests, or in holes in high and 

 precipitous and inaccessible rocks, distant from human habitation, and even far 

 from the nesting places of its own species. Although not gregarious it is by no 

 means an ill-dispositioned bird ; only a solitary and contemplative creature, given 

 to standing motionless for hours on one leg, with its beak buried amongst its 

 feathers. 



Like the White Stork the present species is voiceless, except when quite 

 young and up to about six months, when it utters, according to Dresser, a peculiar 

 guttural sound ; but it can make plenty of noise by clattering with its mandibles 

 in the same manner as the White Stork. 



Montagu has given an interesting account in the " Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society," of a Black Stork he kept for some time in captivity, from which 

 we learn that it soon became very docile, and would feed from the hand ; and 

 that when hungry and supplicating for food it would sit down on the whole 

 length of its tarsi, nod its head, flap its wings, and blow the air from its lungs 

 through its nostrils. Its disposition was mild and amiable ; and it never attacked 

 its fellow prisoners. " From the manner in which," continues the same writer, 

 " it is observed to search the grass with its bill, there can be no doubt that 

 reptiles form part of its natural food ; even mice, worms, and the larger insects, 

 probably add to its usual repast. When searching in thick grass, or in mud, for 

 its prey, the bill is kept partly open ; by this means I have observed it take eels 

 in a pond with great dexterity ; no spear, common in use for taking that fish, can 

 more effectually receive it between its prongs than the grasp of the Stork's open 

 mandibles. A small eel has no chance of escaping when once roused from its 



