196 THE BIKDS OF DEVOX. 



one or two appear regularly every spring, and Mr. Stevenson considered 

 it strange that they have never been known to breed there, no record 

 existing of a nest, even in those remote times -when every Stork that showed 

 itself was not shot down, as is the fate of the bird at the present day. In 

 Holland the pious villagers provide boxes for the birds, the nest of a Stork 

 being considered to bring good luck ; but with us, as Mr. Stevenson 

 remarks, Ihe only bos offered to them is " the bird-stuffer's case, wherein 

 the victim of misplaced confidence inevitably finds its last home." 



In the "West Country the visits of the Common Stork are only acci- 

 dental and are extremely rare. Besides the five instances of its occur- 

 rence in South Devon, mentioned below, we know of only one Cornish 

 example, a fine adult, killed in May 1848 in the Land's End district ; 

 while the only instance of its having been obtained in Soracj-set is one 

 concerning which Mr. Cecil Smith had no information, which is recorded 

 in the list of rare birds from the neighbourhood of Bridgwater furnished 

 by INfr. Baker to the 'Proceedings' of the Countv Archaeological Society 

 for 1850. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell ('Birds of Dorset,' p. 132) knew of two 

 which appeared in Poole Harbour in 1884, which were subsequently shot 

 at Christ Church. We have no knowledge of any specimen having been 

 secured in Xorth Devon. 



Dr. E. Moore says, on the authority of Mr. T. E. Gosling, tbat "three of these birds 

 have at ditferent times within the last ten years [18-0-1830] been obtained on Slnpton 

 Ley. near Kingsbridge" (Trans. Plvm. Inst. ISoO, p. 347; Mag. Xat. Hist. 1837, 

 p. 321). 



In Morris's 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 151, it is stated, on the authority of Mr. N. 

 Eoe, tiiat one was shot at Topshani, on the estuarv of the Exe. 28th July, 1852. 



A specimen in the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, was shot at Clyst St. George, 

 four miles from that city, in January 185(i, as recorded on a label attached to the box- 

 case in which it came with the rest of the collection of the late Mr. F. W. L. Koss, of 

 Topsham. 



Black Stork. Ciconia nigra (Linn.). 



An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence. 



The Black Stork is more of an Asiatic and African than a European 

 species, aud being only a summer migrunt to the South of Europe, cannot 

 be expected so far to the north as the British Isles, except as an accidental 

 storm-driven wanderer. Col. Montagu received a young Black Stork alive 

 from his friend Mr. Anstice, of Bridgwater, which had been wounded on 

 "West Sedgmoor on 14th May, 1814 ; this was the first reported instance 

 of the occurrence of this species in the British Isles. The bird lived for 

 nearly a year with the Colonel, who carefully described its moults, habits, 

 &c., in some interesting letters to Mr. Anstice, which were subsequently 

 contributed by Mr. "\V. Baker, of Bridgwater, to the 'Zoologist.' This 

 specimen still exists in the collection of British birds at South Kensington, 

 and is probably the same bird as that mentioned by Atkinson (Compend. 

 Brit. Orn. 1834) as having been obtained in the parish of Stoke St. Gregory. 

 A Black Stork was shot on theTamar, in South Devon, on 5th November, 

 1831, which was seen by Dr. Moore while it was still warm. It passed 

 into the collection of Mr. Drew, and from thence into the rich aud beautiful 



