THE NIDIOIvOGIST 



47 



'ai. 



A STORK FAMILY 



fellows, and it is always a benefit to everj^- 

 body to have handsome things to look at. 

 I am not at all superstitious about the good- 

 luck part of it, yet at the same time I do not 

 think I would mind it a bit were a pair of 

 Storks to build on the top of my house, and 

 I do not believe the sentiment is altogether 

 prompted by the fact that some of my an- 

 cestors were sturdy old land-holders in 

 Holland! 



Thanks to my good friend the editor of 

 The NidioIvOGIst, we have at hand where- 

 with to illustrate the present article three 

 most admirable photographs of C. alba, 

 which were taken in Germany. For pic- 

 tures of living birds in a state of freedom, 

 they stand amoUg the very best things of 

 the kind we have ever seen, and as models 

 for taxidermists and artists they are won- 

 derfully valuable, and cannot be excelled. 

 The group of four, for example, might be 

 mounted and copied with immense advan- 

 tage by any museum in the world engaged 

 in placing such work upon exhibition. A 

 very interesting picture, too, is the one 

 showing the photographic exposure to have 

 been successfulh^ made just as the bird quit 

 its nest in the initial act of flight. Not a 

 little might be written upon this picture, 

 but space will not admit of it. The best I 



can do is to advise the reader to study it in 

 connection with the text and figures of 

 Professor Charles I. Roy's article on 

 "Flight," in Newton's "Dictionary of 

 Birds,'' now passing through the press. 



Storks are held up as the very models of 

 conjugal fidelity; and they certainly mani- 

 fest the greatest amount of attachment to 

 their young. Years ago, when the great 

 conflagration of Delhi took place, a female 

 White Stork was seen to make several inef- 

 fectual attempts to rescue her brood; when 

 finally finding that it was beyond her 

 power, she deliberately stood over them 

 upon the nest and perished with them in 

 the flames. Many of the story-books 

 abroad tell the little children that the Storks 

 are to be held responsible for every new 

 baby born to the household. That the 

 female Stork flies away to a distant marsh 

 during the night, selects a pretty baby, and 

 in the morning raps at the lattice of 

 mother's window, until she appears and 

 receives the precious gift from its bill. 



In conclusion, I would say that there is 

 al.so a Black Stork {C. niger) found in 

 Europe, but it always breeds in tree- tops, I 

 believe, as is also the case with the C. boy- 

 ciana, a species closelj^ resembling C alba, 

 and found in Eastern Asia and Japan. 



