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of villages, on the top of Nebo ; they remained apparently till they had cleared off the reptilian 

 harvest, and departed for the north as suddenly as they came. A very few pairs here and there 

 remain to breed, notably among the ruins of Gerash and Amman, perhaps also at Csesarea. 

 They showed great confidence in man, and are never molested by the natives." 



In Egypt, Captain Shelley remarks, "during March and April I used to see immense 

 numbers of these birds on their way north. At times they have crowded the banks like an 

 army, and I have seen large sand-banks in the river white with them ; yet I believe they never 

 remain in the country to breed." Mr. A. E. Brehm writes that it " wanders through Egypt and 

 Nubia, remaining, to some extent, during the winter in small companies at Sudan, many pene- 

 trating further into Africa. I found that their passage through Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan is as 

 follows: — In 1848 they were seen about the middle of March at Chaschahba, in Kordofan, on 

 the durra-fields, and later on in large flocks travelling northwards; on the 1st and 2nd of 

 September they passed Schendi, in Southern Nubia, on their southward migration. In 1850 

 they were observed in Upper Egypt on the 12th of March at Khenneh, on the 14th, 18th, 20th, 

 22nd, and 25th of March between Khenneh and Assuan ; on the 2nd and 4th of April below 

 Wadi- Haifa, in Nubia, and again at the latter place on the 14th of April ; on the 11th and 27th 

 of September on the White Nile, and several times observed there during the winter. In 1851 

 from the 14th to the 30th of March and early in April by thousands near Charthum ; on the 

 29th of August I saw a pair of Storks at Abu-Hamed: the female having been lamed by a shot, 

 the male remained behind with her ; and Schinz gives a similar instance of conjugal affec- 

 tion. On the 15th of September they were seen in the province of Dongola, and almost daily 

 between Wadi-Halfa and Kohm-Ombos, in Upper Egypt. In 1852, as early as the 19th of 

 February, above Esneh; on the 21st, 23rd, and 24th of February near Assuan, on the 28th at 

 Edfu, and on the 5th of March at Thebes." In Algeria and North-western Africa it is not 

 rare. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes that "as early as the 15th of February I noticed a Stork 

 feeding in a marsh at Oued el Alleg (river of leeches), and got within fifty yards. I was informed 

 that this was the day on which they usually returned to Medea, where a pair were repairing a 

 nest on one of two chimneys at the gable end of a house on the 1st of the following month. The 

 Stork leaves its nest with a spring, getting quite clear before it ventures to expand its huge wings. 

 It does not draw in its legs, which are so long that they exceed the tail by nearly twelve inches. 

 Its feet appear to touch when it is flying ; but when it is just about to alight they are parted 

 widely. Both sexes clap the bill, but never without first throwing back the head." Loche states 

 that it is " very common in Algeria from the end of February to the end of September ; its food 

 is exclusively animal, consisting of reptiles, mollusks, worms, and fish, and occasionally young 

 rats, mice, and birds ; it utters no cry at any time, merely making a clattering noise by striking 

 the two mandibles of its bill together. As is well known, the same pair return to the old nesting- 

 place year after year ; incubation lasts thirty days ; and the young are fed with half-digested food 

 from the parents' bill." Von Homeyer saw about twenty-five on Lake Halloula, and believes 

 that they breed in Algeria ; and Canon Tristram writes that it is respected in the Sahara as in 

 Holland. It builds on the tops of the " semaurs " or mosque-towers of the M'Zab. Its food 

 there consists of lizards of the desert. Mr. Taczanowski informs me that in the winter of 1866 

 in several localities in Algeria he " met with isolated individuals wintering there, and not till the 



