155 

 SUMMARY. 



It is practical to ring the storks as half-grown nestlings. Thej' sit down 

 when the marker approaches , he covers them with a dark-coloured cloth or 

 with a large and intransparent catcher. Now their feet can be stretched back 

 and ringed. 



The parent- storks will not be frightened; sometimes they witness the 

 marking, standing on a chimnej^ or somewhere else in the vicinity. 



The »rings« (aluminium bands. 53 X 15 mm and 2 mm thick, folded into 

 a circle) are at present stamped with the word "Adresse" besides my name 

 and residence as well as with a number and letter of control. 5 mm in height; 

 the inscription is erect, when the bird is standing. 



Ingluvials can be gathered from and near the nests. Often they measure 

 3x4X5 cm and contain hairs of mice and moles, bones and claws of moles, 

 wings of beetles, stones etc. 



1901 — 1919 incl. upwards of 1500 storks have been marked; 59 of them 

 are mentioned in this paper. 



Generally the young storks cease returning to their nests in the evening 

 primo or medio August, while the parents mav still be seen for some nights 

 sleeping on the chimnej's in the neighbourhood. 



One of my marked storks has flown abt. 250 kilom. a da3^ on its outward 

 passage, another abt. 300 kilom. 



I suppose the storks follow the peninsula of Jutland southward; then 

 they fly E. and S. E. along the Oder, across the West Carpathian mountains 

 (or through the passes, e. g. the Jablunka Pass), further S. E., till they reach 

 the Transylvanian passes (the Torzburger Pass e. g.), through the Balkan pen- 

 insula, across the Bosporus or the straits of the Dardanelles, then presumably 

 along the coast of Asia Minor and S3Tia to Africa and along the eastern side 

 of that continent to the Transvaal, Natal and other parts of South Africa. 



Here the storks stay while it is winter in Denmark. They find their food 

 (e. g. locusts) on the Veld (grass-fields); (hence their common name of "locust- 

 birds"); or they live near rivers, etc. They are rather shy, yet confident to- 

 wards field labourers. They never sit on the houses or on the nests of great 

 birds. They sleep on trees or rocks and do not breed in South Africa. My 

 correspondents do not believe that they commonly perish by eating poisoned 

 locusts, nor do they think that ever increasing numbers of them stay in South 

 Africa, while their comrades are breeding in Europe. Those individuals, which 

 remain in the South African winter, are invalid, perhaps wounded by a native 

 or by a hail-storm, and they often suffer from the cold. 



Sometimes a dead one can be found. 



The storks return by the same route as they arrived in the winterquarters. 



Some of them seem to breed in other countries than Denmark; many 

 come back to their old homes. While the young ones are undeveloped, one 

 of the parents always watches them, and by means of a good field-glass the 

 number of a marked stork can be read. Up to the time of writing four 

 marked, breeding storks have been identified in this way, three in their 

 native piaces; the fourth 155 kilom. away. 



11 



