310 



Young of the year (Brunswick, October) . Differs from the adult in being duller in colour, the head and 

 neck dull metallic brown, each feather terminated with dirty white, giving a spotted appearance ; the 

 beak and legs olive-green, with a bluish tinge. 



When rather older, or nearly adult, the head and neck lose the white spots, and the beak and legs are pale 

 reddish. In this plumage I have figured it. 



Nestling (fide Naumann) . When first hatched it is covered with greyish white down, through which after a 

 time the dark feathers appear, those on the wings and tail first showing themselves, then those on the 

 shoulders, back, and on the sides of the head. 



The Black Stork is found in Central, Southern, and, to some extent, in Northern Europe, in 

 Africa, and in many parts of Asia, as hereinafter stated. 



In England the Black Stork is extremely rare, and is only met with as an occasional straggler. 

 The instances of its occurrence recorded by Mr. Harting are as follows : — " one, Somerset, May 

 1814 {Montagu); three, Norfolk, 1823 (Stevenson); one on the Tamar, Devon, November 1831 

 (Moore) ; one, Otley, Suffolk, October 1832 (Hoy) ; one, Somersetshire (Atkinson) ; one, Poole 

 Harbour, Dorsetshire, 22nd November, 1839 (Yarrell); one, Romney Marsh (Pemberton Bartlett, 

 Stevenson); one, Poole Harbour, Dorsetshire, 1849 (J. H. Gurnet/); one, Market Weigh ton 

 Common, Yorkshire, 1852 (Yarrell); one, Lydd, Kent, 5th May, 1856 (Dennis); one, near 

 Hartlepool, August 1862 (Christy Horsfall) ; one, Otmoor, November 1862 (Gould); one, West- 

 acre, Norfolk, 19th May, 1867 (Hamond)." This last occurrence was recorded by Mr. Stevenson, 

 in his 'Birds of Norfolk' (vol. ii. p. 182), as follows:—" On the 20th of May, 1867, I received a 

 letter from Mr. Anthony Hamond, jun., informing me that a fine Black Stork had been shot by 

 one of the gamekeepers in some meadows on the banks of the river Nar, at Westacre, about half- 

 past four in the morning of the 19th. The bird, it seems, had been observed about the same 

 locality on several occasions for more than a week, but had hitherto kept well out of shot ; and 

 only on the day previous to its death Mr. Hamond and myself had been watching a pair of 

 Gadwalls in the Nar, scarcely a quarter of a mile from the spot where the Stork was killed. It 

 proved on dissection to be an adult female, weighing over seven pounds, and measured, I am 

 told, six feet two inches from tip to tip of wings. Its plumage showed no signs of having been 

 in confinement ; and, owing to its extreme shyness, it was even at last obtained with much 

 difficulty. This noble specimen now forms part of the fine collection of birds at Westacre 

 High-house. 



" Although the first time that this species has been known to be killed in this country, it is 

 probable that others may have visited our coast, and either escaped injury or passed wholly 

 unnoticed. Thus in Mr. Joseph Clarke's MS. notes on rare birds at Yarmouth and other parts 

 of the county, I find the following, under the head of Ciconia nigra : — ' Three were followed in 

 Norfolk for some days in the year 1823 ; and in 1832 one was killed in Suffolk, at Grundisburgh, 

 and was in the possession of a surgeon, a Mr. Ditton, of that place.' " 



Mr. J. H. Gurney informs me that he has a specimen, in the authenticity of which he fully 

 believes, said to have been shot at or near Poole, in Dorsetshire. It does not appear ever to 

 have occurred in Scotland ; but it may in former years have been found in Ireland, as Dr. Scouler 

 (fide Thomp. B. of I. ii. p. 178) includes it in a ' Notice of Animals which have disappeared from 



