BLACK STORK. 
123 
The Black Stork is a migratory bird, wending its way 
northwards in March, and southwards back again in September 
or October. 
It gives a preference to secluded pjaces, dwelling in remote, 
extensive, and impenetrable morasses and forests, interspersed 
with pools or streams, not only in low but in high situations, 
and by the banks of rivers, and it does not otherwise appear 
to be of a particularly wild or shy nature, and is described 
as being moreover of a mild and peaceful disposition, soon 
becoming docile in confinement and free from resentment. It 
frequently rests on one leg. Tt is an old tradition with 
regard to Storks, that they take care of and nourish their 
parents when they are too old to take care of themselves, 
from whence the Greek word ‘pelargicos,’ signifying the duty 
of children to take care of their parents; and ‘pelargicoi 
nomoi,’ signifying the laws relating to that duty, both derived 
from the Greek word for a Stork, ‘Pelargos,’ from ‘pelas’— 
black, and ‘argos’—white, alluding to the prevailing colours 
of the Stork.’ 
The adult bird is not sociable even with those of its own 
kind, and more than a single pair do not choose the same 
building place. If more than two are seen together at the 
time of migration, they will generally be found to be young 
birds of the year. 
They roost on some raised spot, and in this quiescent state 
the neck is recurved so that the hinder part of the head 
rests on the back, and the bill is drawn in closely among 
the feathers of the front of the neck. 
Fish and shell-fish appear to be its favourite food, but it 
eats frogs, snakes, and other reptiles, young birds, moles, 
worms, grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects, in fact almost 
anything. In searching for the first-named the bill is kept 
partly open. Mr. Yarrell says, recording the observations 
made on the one obtained by Montagu, which was kept 
more than a year, ‘When very hungry it crouches, resting 
the whole length of the legs upon the ground, and suppli- 
cantly seems to solicit food by nodding the head, flapping 
its unwieldy pinions, and forcibly blowing the air from the 
lungs with audible expirations. Whenever it is approached, 
the expulsion of air, accompanied by repeated nodding of the 
head, is provoked.’ They wade deep into the water in search 
of prey, which, when captured, they kill by shaking and 
beating with the bill before swallowing. They roost on a 
