THE STORKS. 
99 
tection it everywhere receives, is much more ahundant in 
Marocco than in Andalucia, although 
districts in the latter country, being most common 
marismas and the vicinity of Seville, 
churches in that city. On the African side of Stra ts, in 
many situations they breed on trees generally 
well as on houses, but usually near villages ; and 
Moorish hovel has a Stork’s nest on the top, a pile of sticks, 
“n°d™M, gns, and pal.nctto-f.bne. ^ l 
white eggs which are very rarely marked with pink blotchc^ 
These are sometimes laid as early as the ^Sth of March and 
are very good eating, either hot or cold. When boiled hard, 
Tey hL-e the white clear, as with Peewits’ or Plovers eggs, 
the volk being of a very rich rcddish-ycllow. _ n .• 
“The White Stork is rather irregular as to the time of nesting, 
for we found in Marocco on the same day (the asth of Apr ) 
young birds, eggs, and unfinished nests ; and, to show how 
vaded is the time of migration, wc saw on that day a flight 
As they passed over the “ stoikery, which was n a Lii^e orove 
of hir^h trees, they lowered themselves to within a hundred 
yards°or so of the nests, and after wheeling J 
minutes as if to see how affairs were going on, they worked 
up in a gyrating flight to their original elevation, and continued 
their norLerlf journey, doubtless to the great dchg^h of the 
resident Storks,\vho were in a great state P^’^^urbation and 
disturbance at the appearance of their brethren. I may 
remark that Storks usually migrate in large flocks at a great 
hei4t with a gyrating flight. The earliest date of their arrival 
that I ’noticed near Gibraltar was on the nth 
they nearly all leave by the end of September, d hey are most 
useful birds, feeding on insects of all kinds, mice, snakes, and 
other reptiles, and certainly deserve all the protection and 
encouragement which they receive in Marocco, where ‘hey are, 
in consequence, excessively tame. Ihcir f 
when nesUng, and their habit of continually clacking their b Is 
together, making a noise like a rattle, render them very amus- 
ing to watch.” (Orn. Gibr. and ed. p. 209 .) It appears tha the 
Storks have no note beyond the clacking noise made by their 
bill. 
II 3 
