The White Stork. 37 



The White Stor^, while not infrequent in England, has been recorded several 

 times from Scotland, even from as far north as Shetland, and twice from Ireland. 

 It is distributed, and breeds abundantly through the central and southern parts 

 of the Palsearctic region, (except in France, where it has been exterminated by- 

 persecution), as far east as Turkestan. In winter it migrates to India from the 

 eastern part of its range ; while from Europe it seeks South Africa, where it not 

 infrequently stays a season to breed, especially if locusts, which are a favourite 

 article of diet with it, be unusually numerous. 



The White Stork is a migratory bird, and arrives in mid-Europe, to spend' 

 the summer, towards the end of February and during March, or even as late as 

 the beginning of April, in flocks numbering many hundreds of individuals. Canon 

 Tristram has described how, when in Palestine, he saw numbers of them suddenly 

 appear from the south, moving northwards a few miles a day, " not close together, 

 but scattered over hill and valley, plain and marsh alike, steadily quartering the 

 ground, seldom near one another, but generally about one hundred yards apart, 

 picking up snakes, lizards, frogs, or fish, according to the locality * *. They 

 remained, apparently, till they had cleared off the reptilian harvest, and departed 

 for the north as suddenly as they came." In such manner they journey, travelling 

 generally by day, resting at night upon trees, or as the Canon observed them, for 

 a few days at a time, in some more provendered spot ; as each reaches the region 

 known to itself, it repairs, without fail, to the nest that has known it from year to 

 year. The males and the females migrate in separate flocks ; but the males are said 

 to arrive in Germany and Denmark in advance of the females. As soon as he reaches 

 the familiar scene, he starts at once to inspect the condition of his dwelling, and 

 institute repairs, with an anxious eye for the coming of his mate, which is 

 generally a week later than his own. When that event does take place there is 

 great jubilation between the couple, many love passages, and much bustle and 

 preparation for the house warming. 



Many and various are the sites chosen by the White Stork for its nest, which 

 may be close to or remote from others, for this species is not strictly a gregarious 

 bird. The nest is sometimes in a tree — solitary, or in the forest ; on the ledge of 

 a cliff" ; on a ruined wall ; or in the towers and belfries of churches and mosques. 

 But what has enshrined it in the affection of the people of nearly every country 

 in which it builds, much as the Swallow which frequents our eaves is esteemed 

 in this cotintry, is its hal^it of selecting a bam or outhouse, a stack in a farm- 

 yard, and above all the roofs or the chimneys of dwelling houses, not only in the 

 quiet of the country, but in villages, as well as amid the bustle and commotion 

 of a crowded city, whereon to construct its ponderous nest. It has now become 



Vol. IV. G 



