BLACK STORK. 



621 



body, the wings, apd the tail, are dusky, with hues 

 of purple and greenish : the under parts of the 

 breast and the belly are pure white : the beak, the 

 naked skin about the eyes, and throat, are deep 

 red-crimson : the irides are brown : the legs are 

 deep red. The young have the beak, the naked 

 skin round the eyes, that on the throat, as also the 

 legs, of an olive-green : the head and neck are 

 rufous brown, edged with whitish : the body, the 

 wings, and the tail, are dusky brown, slightly tinged 

 with bluish and green. 



This species inhabits many parts of Europe, but 

 is not so common as the white : it is most abundant 

 in Poland, Lithuania, Prussia, Switzerland, and 

 Turkey ; rarer in Germany and France, and never 

 found in Holland: one specimen has been cap- 

 tured in England ; this was taken on a moor in 

 Somersetshire, on the 13th of May, 1814, and is 

 now in the British Museum. Several particulars 

 of this individual are given by Montagu in the 

 twelfth volume of theLinnean Transactions. Upon 

 its first capture it made but little resistance, and 

 on the following day ate some eels that had been 

 placed near it : it frequently rested upon one leg, 

 and if alarmed, particularly by the approach of a 

 dog, it made a snapping noise with the beak like 

 the White Stork. It soon became docile, and 

 would follow its feeder for a favourite morsel, an 

 eel. When hungry it used to rest its whole leg 

 upon the ground, and forcibly blow the air from 

 its lungs. It frequently waded up to its belly into 

 a pond in search of food, in the choice of which it 



