zS6 



o^^ciTHOLogr. BookM. 



* Of a red 

 lead colour. 



* In his An- 

 notations on 

 Keccbm his 

 Animals. 



I 



C'fiAP." fit. 



Of the Stork* De Ciconia; 



i. I. 



The common or -white Stork' Giconia alba. 



T is bigger than the common Heron : Its Neck thicker and (horter than the He- 

 rons: Its Head, Neck,and fore-part white : The Rump and outfide of the Wings 

 black : The Belly white. The quil-feathers of the Wings black : The Tail 

 white: The Bill long, red, like a Herons Bill. The Legs long, red, bare almoft to 

 the Knees or fecond joy nt from the Foot. The Toes from the divarication to the firft 

 joynt connected by an intervening membrane. The Vertebres of the Neck are four- 

 teen in number. Its Claws are broad, like the nails of a man 5 fo that TrAetTCwyt^©. 

 will not to be fufficient to difference a man from a Star^with its feathers pluckt off. 

 N. B. Herodotus attributes fuch like Claws to the white Mgyptian Ibis. The Claw of 

 the middle Toe is not ferrate. It is feldom feen in England, and not unlefs driven 

 over by a ftorm of wind, or fome other accident. My honoured Friend Sir Thomas 

 Brown of Norwich j a perfbn defervedly famous, for his skill in all parts of learning, 

 butefpecially in natural Hiftory, lent me a Pi&ureof one of thefe birds taken on the 

 Coaft of Norfolk drawn by the life, with a fhort delcription of it, as follows. It 

 Was about a yard high : It had * red Bill and Legs 5 the Claws of the Feet like hu- 

 mane Nails. The lower parts of both Wings were black, fo that when the Wings 

 were doled or gathered up, the lower part of the Back appeared black. Yet the 

 Tail, which was wholly covered and hid by the Wings ( as being fcarce an inch long) 

 Was white, as was alio the upper part of the Body. The quills were equal in bigneft 

 to Swans quills. It made a mapping or clattering noife with its Bill, by the quick and 

 frequent (hiking one Chap againft the other. It readily eat Frogs and Land-mails 

 which we offered it $ but refufed Toads. It is but rarely feen on our Coafts. 

 So far Sir Thomas Brown : Whole defcription agrees exactly with ours in all 

 points. • 



The white Stork, faith * Joannes Faber, is very rare in Italy : All thefe twenty 

 eight years that I have fpent at Rome, I never but once faw a white Stork, and then 

 but one, on the top of the Tower, called Torre deConti, I know not by what wind 

 driven thither. Mdrovandm alfo himfelf an Italian born, and then a very old man, 

 confeffed that he nad never feen a white Stork-, for that the Territory of Bologna did 

 neither breed nor feed them. But fith it is moft certain, that Storks before the ap- 

 proach of Winter fly out of Germany into more temperate and hot Countries, very 

 ftrange it is, Italy being contiguous to Germany, and hotter than it, that they fhould 

 not fly thither, at leaft pafs over it in their flight Southward. 



I know them ( faith the fame Faber ) who have learned by ocular inflection, that 

 Starts a °d Peacocks, when fuch Serpents as they fwallow palled alive through their 

 bodies, ( as they will do feveral times, creeping out at their Fundaments) ufe to fet 

 up their Rumps, arid clap their Tails againft a wall fo long, till they feel the Serpents 

 dead within them. 



*. n. 



The black. Stork: Ciconia nigra. 



IT is equal to the white Stork? or but little lefs than it. Its Head, Neck, Back, and 

 Wings are black, with a certain glofs or mixture of green, not unlike the colour 

 of a Cormorant : Its Breaft, Belly, and fides are white. The Bill green : The Legs 

 alfo green,and bare of feathers up to the Knees or fecond joynt from the Foot. The 

 membrane connecting the Toes reaches on the outfide as far as the firft joynt of the 

 middle Toe, not on the infide. The young ones when they want meat make a noife 

 not unlike to Herons. We faw this Bird firft near Frankefurt on the Main, after at 

 Strasburgh : We fuppofe thofe we faw were young ones, for that their Bills and Legs 

 were green, whereas in that which Faber defcribed they were red. 



Jo. Faber 



