494 CLASS AVES. 



in various countries of Asia, such as China, and the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. 



The night-heron seeks its food partly on land, and partly 

 in the water. It consists of crickets, slugs, frogs, fishes, &c. 

 This bird remains concealed during the day, and never puts 

 itself in motion until the approach of night, when its peculiar 

 cry is heard. It fixes its nest, as would appear, according to 

 circumstances, in the holes of rocks, on elder -trees near 

 marshes, or on bushes. The female lays three or four eggs, 

 of a dull green, according to M. Temminck, and whitish 

 according to Sepp. 



We now arrive at the third tribe of the family of the Culti- 

 rostres, namely, the Storks (Ciconia.) 



In addition to the characters given in the text, we may 

 state, that the storks are large birds, whose eyes are sur- 

 rounded with a naked skin, their neck elevated, the beak long, 

 the legs partly denuded of feathers, and very long, the wings 

 broad and vigorous, covering the tail, and the tongue very 

 short and triangular. 



The storks are found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and 

 some even in America. They have no cry, and the only 

 noise they make is the clattering together of their broad and 

 light mandibles, the edges of which exhibit asperities, and do 

 not close well except towards the point. When the animal is 

 irritated, or agitated by any strong impression, it turns the 

 head round so as to plant the bill almost parallel with the 

 back. Then the two mandibles strike against each other 

 with great force and quickness, and this clattering, which 

 diminishes in proportion as the neck is raised, ceases alto- 

 gether when that has assumed its natural position. The 

 ancients employed the imitative words crepitat, glotterat^ 

 to express this noise, which Petronius calls a noise of cymbals 

 ( crotahim), and it has occasioned the stork to receive the 

 epithet of crotalistria. 



The movements of the storks are slow, their steps long and 



