STOfiA'S. 



39 



old wound. On the other hand, there are well-authenticated instances of tame 

 storks having been mobbed and killed by their fellows, and the same fate is stated 

 to have overtaken a female stork whose eggs had been replaced by those of a hen, 

 which in due course were hatched into chickens. 



The second European representative of the genus is the black 

 Black Stork. , . . 1 . ... r . . ? 



stork (6. nigra), which is likewise an occasional visitant to England. 



In this bird the plumage of the head, neck, and upper-parts is brownish black, 

 with a variable metallic lustre ; the under-parts, from the lower breast, being- 

 white, and the wings and tail lacking the lustre of the contour-feathers. The iris 

 is reddish brown, the beak blood-red, and the leg and foot carmine. The black 

 stork, which is a rather smaller bird than its white cousin, inhabits Central and 

 Southern Europe, occasionally ranging northwards, and is found all over Africa, 

 while eastwards it extends to China, and, in winter, India. Unlike the white 

 species, it shuns human habitations as widely as possible, frequenting the most 

 secluded swamps on the banks of lakes and rivers, and nesting in tall forest trees. 

 In Jutland Mr. Elwes describes the nests as being lined with moss, and having a 

 diameter of some four feet ; the four greyish white eggs being deposited in a 

 shallow cavity in the centre. Writing of the habits of a captive individual of this 

 species, Montagu observes that the stork does not gorge an eel instantly like the 

 cormorant ; on the contrary, it retires to the margin of the pool, and there disables 

 its prey by shaking and beating with its bill, before it ventures to swallow it. 

 I never observed this bird attempt to swim ; but it will wade up to the belly, and 

 occasionally thrust the whole head and neck under water after its prey." 



There are a few other Old World representatives of this genus, but there are 

 none in North America; while the Maguari stork of South America (Dissura 

 niaguari) and the West African white-necked stork (D. episcopiis) are more 

 generally referred to a distinct genus, characterised by the tail being deeply 

 forked and its lower coverts stiffened so as to resemble true rectrices. 

 White-Bellied Although externally not unlike the black stork in general 



tork. appearance, the w r hite-bellied stork (Abdimia sphenorhyncha) of 

 Africa is made the type of a distinct genus, as it differs from the more 

 typical storks in having the rings of the bronchial tubes incomplete behind 

 and closed with membrane ; thus indicating that it is a generalised type 

 retaining evidence of the original kinship of the family with the herons. 

 Considerably smaller than the black stork, this species has the head and 

 neck black, with a purple lustre; the back, wings, and tail black tinged 

 with green, and the bend of the shoulder and under-parts white. The iris is 

 brown, the naked space around the eye blue, and that on the throat red, the 

 beak greenish with a red tip, and the leg and foot brownish grey, except at the 

 ankle-joint, where it is red. From Dongola in the Sudan, nearly to South Africa, 

 this stork is found in vast numbers, although it frequents the villages only during 

 the breeding-season, There, however, it nests but seldom on houses, preferring 

 trees in the neighbourhood, and in the south generally selecting mimosas. Not 

 unfrequently it breeds in large companies, as many as thirty nests having been 

 observed in a single tree. The eggs are rather smaller than those of the white 

 stork, but vary considerably in form and dimensions. The simbil, as this bird is 



