46 



C I M B E X. 



In some places storks nestle very thickly together, 

 but they always live in the greatest harmony. At 

 Bagdad there are hundreds of nests, on the houses, 

 the walls, and the trees ; and among the ruins of 

 Persepolis, there is a stork's nest on the top of every 

 nodding fragment and mouldering column. 



About the month of August they begin to move 

 from their more northerly haunts ; and they move 

 sooner in moist and cold seasons than in dry and 

 warm ones. Previous to their departure they assemble 

 in very numerous flocks upon some plain, and hold 

 a conversation in that peculiar clanking of their bills 

 of which we have taken notice. The motion of the 

 mandible while this is performing is very rapid, and 

 the clattering which they make is considerable. 

 Sometimes they meet, break up, and meet again, 

 before they take their final departure. When they 

 do move off, it is done in perfect silence, and often 

 during the night ; and they also arrive in silence, so 

 that neither the beginning nor the end of their jour- 

 neys is often noticed. They rise rapidly to a great 

 height, and as they utter no sound when on the wing, 

 they are seldom observed when passing over the 

 plains. But on the mountains they are more easily 

 seen ; and the flocks of them which are observed 

 from such points of view are often very numerous. 

 Shaw, the traveller, mentions having seen flights of 

 them passing over Mount Carmel in their flight 

 northward from Egypt, a mile in breadth, and taking 

 three hours before they all passed over the point of 

 observation. In Asia and the east of Europe they 

 are very numerous, ranging into Siberia, into Russia, 

 and even into Sweden ; and they do not seem to be 

 much affected by the cold. Those which breed in 

 the north, in the early part of the season, generally 

 have another brood in Egypt and the other southern 

 countries ; but they do not all quit these southern 

 latitudes ; and some of them are stationary in the 

 east of Asia, and in some of the Asiatic islands, as 

 well as in the north of Africa. In all their characters 

 and habits they are very interesting birds ; they may 

 be said to be almost tame in a state of nature ; and 

 they live in confinement without any apparent incon- 

 venience, or even much reluctance ; but confinement 

 3s obviously contrary to their habits, as they do not 

 breed in that state, and whenever animals cease to 

 obey this, the strongest impulse of nature, we may 

 safely conclude that the state is not one for which 

 nature designed them. It is also worthy of remark, 

 that, generally speaking, these animals, which will 

 jiot breed in confinement, and therefore cannot pro- 

 perly be domesticated, are never of so much use to 

 man as those which breed freely. Notwithstanding 

 the tale of Boccaccio, the stork is very far from being 

 a bonny Jiawke, even to the most perverted epicure ; 

 for its flesh is not very nutritious, and it is at the 

 same time far from being savoury ; therefore, there is 

 but little temptation for taking the bird out of that 

 state of nature in which it has so many interesting 

 points. 



THE BLACK STORK (Ciconia nigra). The black 

 stork measures about three feet in length. The 

 upper part is blackish, with metallic reflections ; and 

 the lower part of the breast and the belly white. 

 The naked space round the eyes, and that on the 

 neck, and also the bill, are crimson : and the feet are 

 deep red. The colours of the young are different, 

 the upper part being blackish-brown, with reflections ; 

 the feathers on the head and neck brown, with red- 



dish borders ; and the naked skin round the eyes and 

 on the neck, and also the feet, are olive green. In 

 consequence of this difference of colour, the young 

 birds have sometimes been described as a different 

 species, under the name of the brown stork. 



Though these two birds agree in their general 

 characters, the habits of the black one are, in many 

 respects, the reverse of the white. Like that it is a 

 ranging and migrant kind ; but, instead of resorting 

 to towns and inhabited places, it seeks those which 

 are lonely and sequestered. Its haunts are the remote 

 and inaccessible marshes, and the borders of lakes 

 which are seldom visited. It is found in considera- 

 ble numbers in the more sequestered parts of the 

 Alps, always on the borders of the waters, where it 

 subsists, at least in part, by fishing. It hovers over 

 the surface, and occasionally plunges down to snatch 

 its prey. It occurs in Poland and Prussia, and par- 

 tially in Germany, also in some parts of France ; but 

 it is very rare in Holland where the white species is 

 very plentiful. Indeed it seems to shun not only the 

 peculiar haunts, but the countries which are most 

 frequented by its congener. In Britain it has occurred 

 .only as a very rare straggler. 



It builds in trees, in the depth of the forests ; and, 

 as is the case with several others of the larger birds 

 of this division of the order, it appears to prefer fruit 

 to any other trees, no doubt because it can stand on 

 the horizontal branches which these send out, much 

 better than on the sprays of deciduous trees. The 

 eggs are from two to four, of a dull greenish white, 

 with some blotches of brown, which do not appear to 

 be constant. Though these birds sometimes fish, 

 fishing is not their peculiar, or even their principal, 

 resource. They feed upon reptiles, mollusca, insects, 

 the smaller ground mammalia, and also upon any 

 animal remains or offal which they can procure. 

 They are voracious birds and appear to migrate 

 after their food rather than in consequence of any 

 other instinct. On their long journeys they are birds 

 of very lofty flight ascending upwards till, notwith- 

 standing their large size, they are barely, if at all, 

 visible. They may be partially tamed ; but there is 

 little inducement to tame them, as they have not the 

 interesting manners of the white storks, and their 

 flesh is even less palatable. 



THE AMERICAN STORK (Ciconia magnari) is de- 

 scribed as differing from the white stork of the eastern 

 continent chiefly in having the bill of an ash colour. 

 It is white, with the wings and upper tail-coverts 

 black ; the irides white, and the feet red. It is about 

 three feet in length. Its principal locality is said to 

 be to the eastward of La Plata in the uninhabited part 

 of the pampas. Some of the accounts state that it 

 breeds in confinement, but this is contrary to the 

 general habit of the genus. 



A few more species and varieties have been men- 

 tioned, such as the small black stork of Northern 

 Africa, and the purple stork of India ; but the ac- 

 counts of them are a little confused. Some notice of 

 the great stork of India, which is an allied species, 

 will be found under the article ADJUTANT ; and the 

 Jaribus will be noticed in the article MYCTERIA. 



CIMBEX (Olivier : Crabo, Geoff.> A genus of 

 hymenopterous insects belonging to the section 

 Securifera, and family Tenthredinidce, and forming 

 together with the several sub-genera which have been 

 separated from it by Dr. Leach, (Zareza, triJtiosoma, 

 Abia, clavettaria\ a section in that family distinguished 



