BLACK-NECKED STORK. 
its breast with its legs doubled up underneath. I have noticed him watch 
the ground very attentively under the trees, and then dart his bill into the 
earth and bring up larvae, which I found were those of Locusts.”* 
The eggs of the bird were first brought before the scientific world by 
Mr. W. T. White, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 
Vol. III., p. 139, 1886. He also records that both birds take part in 
incubation. 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected on the Eitzroy 
River, North-west Australia, by Mr. J. T. Tunney, in 1898. 
Though Shaw described the Australian bird as long ago as 1800, it has 
recently been united to the Indian species which had been described 
in 1790. 
Ramsay appears to have been one of the first to suggest this confusion, 
but upon comparison the birds are clearly sub specifically distinct. If the 
previous writers’ descriptions be examined, this difference will be seen to 
have been noted by aU. 
The description of the coloration of the neck given by Sharpe in the 
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXVI., p. 310, 1898, 
reads, “ metallic bluish green, rather more purple on the neck.” This is 
not applicable to the Australian bird, as no purple is observable and the 
blue is missing, the neck-coloration being practically a pure green with 
metallic reflections. 1 have called it “bottle-green.” I also describe the 
“ hinder-crown and nape bronze-purple ” : in the Indian bird a much larger 
patch is seen and the coloration is better defined as “ deep maroon.” 
I separated the North-western bird on account of its smaller size, 
but in accordance with the conservative views I am adopting in the present 
place, I am lumping the whole of the Australian birds until larger series 
become available. 
\\ 
* Beimett, Gath. Naturalist, p. 196 etc., 1860. 
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