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stay in Savoy is but very short." Professor Barboza du Bocage includes it in his list of the birds 

 of Portugal ; and the various writers on the ornithology of Spain speak of it as common in that 

 country. Lord Lilford saw numbers near Segovia. Major Irby records it as abundant near 

 Seville, arriving in February and leaving in October ; and Mr. Howard Saunders, in his paper on 

 the birds of Southern Spain, gives this bird as " abundant throughout the country, breeding in 

 the towers and belfries of the churches of the towns and cities, and on the ' almihares ' or stacks 

 of the farmhouses. The largest number of eggs that I have known is five." When at the 

 Escorial, in May 1866, I saw several pairs which had their nests on the roofs of that cluster of 

 buildings, and was told that they breed there regularly. 



Passing eastward, again, we find it, according to Doderlein, of occasional occurrence in Central 

 Italy and Sicily ; and Salvadori writes that it is but rarely known to visit Sardinia. Mr. C. A. 

 Wright records it as "rare in Malta, and not seen annually;" and Dr. Giglioli states that he 

 never observed it near Pisa. Lord Lilford met with it in Epirus, where it arrives in March and 

 was found breeding on the house-tops ; and in Greece, where it is tolerably common, it arrives 

 before the equinoctial gales in large numbers, and spreads over the entire country. Lindermayer 

 says that it affects the old Turkish ruins and places where the Turks reside ; and in those where 

 civilization had progressed to any extent, as, for instance, in Nauplia, Patras, Syra, and Athens, 

 the Stork has gradually disappeared. He writes that the males fight to the last for the females, 

 and records an instance, which he himself witnessed, of two males fighting until both were quite 

 disabled. 



It is not uncommon in Southern Germany ; and Mr. W. H. Hudleston states that it abounds 

 in the Dobrudscha, where it may be seen wading deliberately on the edge of every pool. In 

 Turkey, Messrs. Elwes and Buckley write, it is " very common all over the country, arriving in the 

 beginning of April. There is hardly a village or farm in Turkey without its pair of Storks ; and 

 in some places nearly every house has a nest on the roof. As the Stork is protected, and regarded 

 as a bird of good omen by Turks, Greeks, and Bulgarians alike, it is very tame and familiar, 

 and always takes up its quarters close to a house. The eggs are laid at the end of April, and 

 are sat upon by male and female in turn." Mr. G. Cavendish Taylor met with it commonly in 

 the outskirts of Constantinople ; and I often observed it in the low lands at the mouth of the 

 Danube. Throughout Southern Russia they are, Professor Nordmann states, numerous wherever 

 man is present and there is plenty of stagnant water, and arrive early in March. During a period 

 when the freshwater pools were dried up near Odessa, the Storks were very rare, and those 

 which did appear, contrary to their usual habits, frequented the sea-shore, where they fed on 

 several species of Mytilus. Canon Tristram records it from Palestine as " a regular though only 

 a passing migrant. During the whole of April it covers the land, suddenly appearing in the 

 south, and moving northwards a few miles a day. Thus we were told by some travellers who 

 came up to Gennesaret that the whole country about Samaria was covered with Storks. Two 

 days afterwards they overspread our neighbourhood, not close together, but scattered over hill 

 and valley, plain and marsh alike, steadily quartering the ground, seldom near one another, but 

 generally about a hundred yards apart, picking up snakes, lizards, frogs, or fish, according to the 

 locality. Just after this I had occasion to make a six days' journey to the south-east. The 

 Storks were everywhere, among rocks on the hills, in oliveyards, sandy plains, on the dunghills 



