390 THE STORK. 
scraped very thin, and polished, and is then used as a spoon, and is thought 
a valuable article, being sometimes set in silver. 
The breeding-places of the Spoonbill are usually open trees, the banks of 
rivers, or in little islands and tufts of aquatic herbage. In the latter cases 
the nest is rather large, and is made of reeds piled loosely together, and set 
on a foundation of water-weeds heaped sufficiently high to keep the eggs 
from the wet. There is no lining to the nest. The eggs are generally four in 
number, and their colour is greyish white, spotted with rather pale rusty brown. 
THE STORK is another of the birds which, in the olden days, were tolerably 
frequent visitors to the British Islands, but which now seldom make their 
appearance in such inhospitable re- 
gions, where food is scarce and guns 
are many. 
It is sufficiently common in many 
parts of Europe, whither it migrates 
yearly from its winter quarters in Af- 
rica, makes its nest, and rears its 
young. 
The Stork attaches itself to man 
and his habitations, building its 
huge nest on the top of his house, and 
walking about in his streets as fami- 
liarly as if it had built them. It espe- 
cially parades about the fish-markets, 
\\ where it finds no lack of subsistence 
| in the offal; and in Holland, where 
it is very common, it does good ser- 
= vice by destroying the frogs and other 
reptiles which would be likely to be- 
come a public nuisance unless kept 
down by the powerful aid of this bird. 
The Stork is fond of making its 
STORK.—(Ciconia alba.) nest upon some elevated spot, such as 
the top of a house, a chimney, or a 
church spire ; and, in the ruined cities of the East, alrrost every solitary pillar 
has its Stork’s nest upon the summit. The nest is little more than a hetero- 
geneous bundle of sticks, reeds, and similar substances heaped together and 
with a slight depression for tle eggs. These are usually three or four in 
number, and their colour is white with a tinge of buff. 
The colour of the adult Stork is pure white, with the exception of the quill 
feathers of the wings, the scapularies, and greater wing-coverts, which are 
black. The skin round the eye is black, the eyes are brown, and the beak, 
legs, and toes red. The length of the full-grown bird is about three feet 
six inches, and when erect, its head is about four feet from the ground. 
THERE are several remarkable members of this group, one of which is the 
well-known ADJUTANT, or ARGALA, of India, the former name being derived 
from its habit of frequenting the parade-grounds. 
This fine bird is notable for the enormous size of the beak, which is 
capable of seizing and swallowing objects of considerable size, a full-grown 
cat, a fowl, or a leg of mutton being ingulfed without any apparent difficulty. 
The Adjutant is a most useful bird in the countries which it inhabits, and is 
protected with the utmost care, as it thoroughly cleans the streets and public 
places of the various offal which is flung carelessly in the way, and would be 
left to putrefy but for the constant services of the Adjutant and creatures of 
similar habits. 
