50 TEE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
construction consists of sticks and other substances. He considers himself a fortunate man 
indeed who can boast a stork’s nest on his house. 
To show how widespread is the regard in which this bird is held, we may mention that 
in Morocco, according to Colonel Irby, “ almost every Moorish hovel has its stork’s nest on the 
top, a pile of sticks lined with grass and palmetto-fibre,” and he goes on to relate that in 
‘Morocco and Fez, and some other large towns in the Moorish Empire, there is a regular 
storks’ hospital, and that, should one be in any way injured or fall from the nest, it is sent 
to this institution, or rather enclosure, which is kept up by subscriptions from wealthy Moors, 
who regard the stork as a sacred bird.” 
Though the nest appears to be generally placed upon buildings, it is, when these fail, 
built in trees, and the selection of such sites must be regarded as representing the original 
practice of the species. 
The stork is one of the very few birds which appear to be quite dumb. It supplies the 
want of a voice by a very remarkable clapping noise made by the long, horny beak. But even 
this noise is rarely made, and appears to be prompted by unusual excitement. ‘ During 
the breeding-season,” Mr. Howard Saunders tells us, ‘storks keep up a clappering with their 
bills, and this sound may frequently be heard proceeding from a number of birds circling in 
the air at such a height as to be almost invisible.” 
The affection displayed by storks for their young is proverbial. They feed them by 
thrusting their beaks down into the gaping little mouths, and injecting the half-digested 
remains of their last meal, which may represent reptile, frog, or fish, varied by a small 
mammal, young bird, worms, or insects. 
The white stork is a really beautiful bird. Except the quill- and some of the smaller 
wing-feathers, which are black, the plumage is snow-white, whilst the bill and the legs are 
bright red. Like the swallow, it performs extensive migrations, traveling in flocks, number- 
ing many thousands, at an immense height. 
Scarcely less beautiful is the BLACK STORK, 
and, like its white-plumaged ally, it is also 
an occasional visitant to Britain. It is a 
handsome bird, having the plumage of the upper- 
parts black, richly glossed with purple, copper, 
and green; the under-parts pure white; and the 
legs and beak red. But it is far less sociable, 
and consequently less known, than the white 
stork, shunning the haunts of men, and seeking 
seclusion for its nest in the lofty trees of large 
forests. 
The largest members of the Stork Tribe 
are the ADJUTANT-STORKS and Japirus. The 
adjutants are also, to our eyes at least, singu- 
larly ugly birds. In spite of this very natural 
disadvantage, they have won a very high place 
in the regard of the people among whom they 
dwell, on account of the fact that, both in 
Africa and India, they perform, with the 
vultures, the work of scavengers. Yet there 
is something of quaintness about these birds, 
if they are watched from a distance too great 
to reveal the character which imparts the ugli- 
ness to which we have referred, and their actions 
not seldom border on the grotesque. The name 
A rare species, remarkable for the huge sixe of the beak Adjutant has been bestowed upon them on 
By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Tring 
WHALE-HEADED STORK 
