We sought him everywhere, in the hope that he might have Through the kindness of my friend I was not wholly eggs, which he secured and brought over to England ges on the spot. e was not to be found. The Black Stork laid two more These are now in my collection. ery faint greenish tinge for the purpose of nesting and rearing its probably sucked the ¢ preserved them, but h disappointed after all. HIT the following summer. | HT AI which they may also be distinguished by av are smaller than those of Creona alba, from They being noticeable on closer inspection.” More commonly the Black Stork resorts to the distant forests e which are interspersed with streams and pools of water or marshy flats. There i} NA A oo articularly thos | ae 4 nd ee April,” s pest in solitude near the top of one of the owards the e ’ highest trees of the forest, for the most part upon than that of the White Stork ; its foundation of stic sods of earth, the remainder of the nest being completed with finer sticks. The eggs are four in number, very like but smaller than those of the White Stork.” HTT The Black Stork is only an occasional or rare visitant to our 1 | il HA that Yarrell enumerates only four specimens as having been killed in any part of them, namely—Colonel | HH Montaeu’s bird on West Sedge Moor, in Somersetshire, in May 1814; one on the Tamar, in Devonshire, | 8 ossession of E. H. Rodd, Esq., of Penzance ; another at Otley, near Ipswich | ’ iit g HEAT | in November 1831, now in the p ai | Harbour, November 1839; to these, says Mr. Hewitson, “ it builds it that of the pine tree. The nest, though large, is less ks is rendered more firm and stable by the addition of slands, in proof of which I may mention in Suffolk, October 1832; and one on the south side of Poole : | however, two more have been added by the Rev. F. O. Morris, namely, one killed on Market Weighton ‘1 October 1852, and a second, which Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Common, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, In addition to these Mr. A. Newton informed Mr. . informed him had been killed in the Weald of Kent. | | | Stevenson “that Mr. Thornhill, of Riddlesworth, possesses a very fine specimen which he obtained in the HATA | flesh more than twenty years since of a laboarer who had just shot it on some property of his own in 11 Romney Marsh; and in Mr. J. H. Gurney’s collection is a specimen said to have been killed at Poole in ETT IH | | 1849, just ten years later than the one before mentioned from the same locality.” Besides the above, | WA | W. Christy Horsfall, Esq., states in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1862, under the date of September 8th, that he had i | WM just added to his collection a fine specimen which had been recently obtained at Hartlepool ; and the Hon, Hi Augusta Annesley has called my attention to another, which her friend F. D. Hibbert, Esq., stated had been | | shot on Otmoor about the middle of November 1862. To these another has yet to be added: on the 14th of June 1867, I received a letter from Mr. Anthony Hammond informing me that a fine Black Stork had been shot on the banks of the river Nar, at Westacre, in the morning of the 19th of May. It had been about the meadows in the neighbourhood for a week and was always fishing. It proved to be an adult HL female, weighing over seven pounds, and is now in the fine collection of birds at Westacre High House, HAT The food of the Black Stork is precisely the same as that of its ally ; in its search it wades deep in the water | I and kills its prey by shaking and beating before swallowing it. When about to fly, the bird takes one or two ] | short leaps, and, when alighting, skims a short distance before touching the ground, and places its wing- HIT feathers in order before it moves on further. It readily submits to captivity, and never uses its powerful bill | | offensively against its companions. The only sound made by the bird appears to be the clattering one | produced by the repeated snapping of its mandibles. Mr. Jerdon mentions, in his ‘ Birds of India,’ that there ‘this bird is considered one of the finest quarries for the Bhyri (Falco peregrinus), and the day that a Black Stork is killed is marked by the Indian Falconer with a white stone.” iil | There is no difference in the colouring of the sexes, and but little in size; the female is, however, a trifle HII smaller than the male. The portion shown of the principal figure is nearly of the natural size.