STORKS 307 
sexes may be distinguished by a difference in size, while the colours of the young 
are duller than those of the old birds. Storks, of which there are some twenty 
species, have a world-wide distribution; those inhabiting the northern regions of 
the globe being migratory. They are all diurnal in their habits, and the only 
sound they utter is produced by a sharp snapping of the beak. Extinct genera 
carry the family back to the early part of the Miocene period. 
The true storks are characterised by their perfectly straight 
sharp beaks, in the horny covering of which the nostrils are 
perforated, by the webs of the front toes extending to their first joints, and by 
the third, fourth, and fifth quills 
being of nearly equal length. By 
far the best known species is the 
white stork (Ciconia alba), in 
which the whole of the plumage, 
with the exception of the black 
True Storks. 
greater wing-coverts and quills, is 
pure white, the beak being red, 
the bare space round the eye 
black, the iris brown, and the foot 
and leg red, with brown claws. 
The whole length varies from 42 
to 44 inches. With the exception 
of the extreme north, the stork 
ranges over the whole of Europe, 
although not breeding every- 
where, and being merely an 

irregular visitor to the British \ ff 
Islands. Eastwards its range Bere ey te re 
extends through Turkey and 
Persia to Central Asia and a great part of India, while in winter the bird 
visits Northern Africa in large numbers. In France, where it is much _per- 
secuted, it is now only a passing visitor; but it breeds in large numbers in 
Holland, Germany, and indeed over the greater part of Central and Eastern 
Europe, where it enjoys protection on the part of the inhabitants. The stork 
has become thoroughly habituated to human habitations and the presence of 
man, by whom it is esteemed, not only on account of its value as a scavenger, 
but likewise from its well-known fidelity to its young, which has become pro- 
verbial. In Palestine, where they only exceptionally breed, storks make their 
appearance at the latter part of March on their northern journey, while in 
Holland and Denmark they generally arrive about the middle of April. They 
arrive and depart (as shown in the illustration on p. 289) in immense flocks ; and 
on their arrival spread themselves over the country in search of food, which 
comprises small mammals and birds, reptiles, frogs, insects, ete. In most parts of 
Europe the stork generally builds on chimneys, where boxes or other receptacles 
for the nest are frequently placed for its accommodation; and as it returns year 
after year to the same spot, the nest, which is originally a shallow structure of 
