STORKS. 309 
o 
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to have overtaken a female stork whose eggs had been replaced by those of a hen, 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 
stork (CL 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. 
Black Stork. 
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 (Disswra 
maguari) and the West African white-necked stork (D. episcopus) 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 reetrices. 
i Although externally not unlike the black stork in general 
White-Bellied S y 8 
Sore appearance, the white-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 
