WHITE STOEK. 
121 
male and the female, and is also taken up by the young as 
soon as fledged. A hissing noise is also emitted, especially 
by the young birds when in fear. 
The periodical return of the Stork to the place of its nest, 
the home of its own youth, and in like manner of its ancestors 
for generation after generation, is well known. ‘In various 
parts of Holland, the nest of this bird, built on the chimney 
top, remains undisturbed for many succeeding years, and 
the owners constantly return with unerring sagacity to the 
well-known spot. The joy which they manifest on again 
taking possession of their deserted dwelling, and the attach¬ 
ment which they testify towards their benevolent hosts, are 
familiar in the mouth of everyone.’ ‘In Holland particularly, 
in some parts of Germany, and indeed in all countries where 
it breeds, it is protected; boxes are provided for them on 
the tops of the houses; and in several continental cities, he 
considers himself a fortunate man, whose roof the Stork 
selects for its periodical resting-place.’ Platforms and other 
artificial flat erections are also placed for them to build on. 
A heap of sticks and twigs, with any other coarse materials, 
forms the nest. It is placed on the house top, the summit 
of some tall chimney, the steeple of a church, or an old 
tower, or turret; as well as on the highest parts of the 
loftiest trees, in the immediate vicinity of the most crowded 
thoroughfares. 
The eggs are usually three or four in number; white, tinged 
with buff, and of a short oval form. The young are hatched 
after a month’s incubation, and are attended to with sedulous 
attention by both parents, until fully fledged and able to 
provide for themselves. The old birds feed them from their 
own bills, with food they have previously swallowed. 
Male; length, three feet six or eight inches; bill, red; iris, 
brown; the bare part round it black. Head, crown, neck, 
nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, pure unsullied white. 
Greater wing coverts, glossy black, shaded with grey towards 
the shafts; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, black. Legs 
and toes, red; claws, brown. 
There is no difference in the plumage of the male and the 
female. Bill, in the latter, dark brownish red; legs and toes, 
dark brownish red. 
In the young the black parts of the plumage are tinged 
with brown. 
