362 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



brown ; the legs and toes are greenish brown ; the 

 claws are darker. 



The eggs are of a uniform pale brownish colour, 

 a shade or two darker than the usual hue of the 

 common Pheasant's egg, but the shell is not of that 

 glossy surface, the texture being somewhat coarser.* 



BLACK STORK, Ciconia nigra. I include this very 

 rare bird amongst the Birds of Somerset, on the 

 authority of Colonel Montagu, who had a specimen 

 which was shot in West Sedge Moor, adjoining the 

 parish of Stoke St. Gregory, Somersetshire, on the 

 13th of May, 1814. Mr. Anstice, who communicated 

 the fact to Montagu, and afterwards sent him the 

 bird alive, gives the following account of it : " As 

 the bird agrees in every respect with the description 

 given of the Stork, except that it is brown or cine- 

 reous everywhere but on the belly, which is white, 

 I suppose it to be the young bird of that species. 

 The man assures me it has fed on eels and other 

 small fish since Tuesday last, the 31st." The bird 

 was afterwards sent to Colonel Montagu, who says 

 of it, " If I can furnish fish enough he is likely to 

 live, and to repay me by the examination of his 

 manners, and perhaps some change in his plumage, 

 which I think a few dark glossy green feathers on 

 his back indicate. It is certainly the Black Stork, 

 and the only instance of this bird having varied its 



* See 'Zoologist' for 1868 (Second Series, p. 1220). 



