A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.

George Montagu

Date:: 1866

Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$that a fine specimen of the Black Stork was killed on or about the 5th of May, 1856, a few miles from Lydd ; and in the volume for 186'3 Mr. Christy Horsfall no- tices, at p. 8190, that a specimen was obtained near Hartlepool in August or September, 1803. The Black Stork is a migratory bird on the Continent of Eu- rope : it occiu's frequently in Poland, Hun- gary, Italy, Turkey and Greece, during the ■winter season, but goes northward on the approach of spring, and breeds in the far North, building its large nest on the highest pines : the foundation is of sticks bound together by sods of turf. The eggs are four in number, and perfectly white.] Stork or White Stork.—{Yaii'ell, ii. 586; HewiUon, Ixxxiv. 317.] Ardea Cicouia, Lin. Si/st. i. p. 235, 7; Gmel. Syst. ii. p. 623 ; Raii Syn. p. 97, A. 1; Will- V- 210, t. 52; Ind. Orn. ii. p. 676, 9 ; Bris. v. p. 365, 2, t. 32; Ib. 8vo, ii. p. 305 ; Bewick, Br. Birds, ii. t. p. 33; Wood, Zoography, i. t. p. 519. Cicogne Ijlanche, Buf. vii. p. 253, t. 12. Wliite Stork, Arct. Zool. p. 455, C.; Will. Angl. p. 286, t. 52; Albin, ii. t. 64; Lath. Syn. v. p. 47 ; Ib. Sup. p. 2-34; Lewin, Br. Birds, iv. t. 144; Wale. Syn. ii. t. 125.—A species of Heron, about the size of a Turkey; length three feet three inches. The bill is ^even inches three- quarters long, of a fine red-colour. The plumage is wholly white, except some of the scapulars, the greater coverts, and quill-feathers, which are black ; the orbits of the eyes are bare and blackish ; the skin, legs, and bai’e part of the thighs are red. The sexes are alike. This bird is rarely met with in England. Several in- stances, however, are on record ; one was killed at Salisbury in February, 1790. Vast numbers resort to some parts of Holland to breed, and even as far north as Russia, and depart in autumn southward to winter in Egypt and other warmer climates. In most countries the inhabitants hold them in great veneration, probably from tlieir property of destroying reptiles, on which they feed. They provide boxes for them on the tops of their houses. In these places the Stork is so bold as to walk the streets without fear. It makes a lai’ge nest of sticks, and lays from two to four eggs, about the size of that of a Goose, of a dirty yellowish white. Supplement. — The Stork, although a bird of passage, covering a vast extent of territory in its annual migration from Persia and other parts of Asia and Africa, into the northern parts of Europe as far as Sweden, and in the lower parts of Russia ; spreading into Holland, and into Spain, especially about Seville; yet it is of very rare occurrence in England. To the few instances on record we oi'e enabled to add one shot at Sandwich in Kent, in the year 1805 ; unfortunately only the head and legs of this specimen were saved, and are now in our possession, giving a proof of the fact. The bRl is seven inches and a half long from the tip to the feathers on the forehead, and one inch three-eighths deep at the base; it is nearly straight, with the point of the upper mandible sUghtly bent downwards, and rather ex- ceeding the other in length; the colour red : the length of the legs from the mid- dle toe to the knee is a foot; from the knee to the joint of the thigh ten inches, six of which are bare of feathers, and all the bare part of this, as well as the legs, are scaly; the toes are connected with a strong scaly membrane, the middle toe to the outer as far as the second joint, and to the inner as far as the first joint; claws ex- tremely short and blunt. Another Stork was shot in Hampshire, in the autumn of 1808, by the gamekeeper belonging to Major Guiton. The Major had seen the bird in the morning, and shot at it with- out effect, being at too great a distance : in the evening it was observed by the keeper, perched upon the top of a house, where it was shot. The same bird (pro- bably) had been noticed by some husband- men, several times for the preceding fort- night, contiguous to the place where it was shot. [A considerable number of instances of this bii'd’s occurring in Britain ai’e re- corded by Mr. YaiTell, to which excellent ornithologist the reader is referred for copious details. In the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1848 Mr. Rodd records, at p. 2147, the oc- currence of an adult White Stork at the Land’s End, in the second week in May : in the same volume Sir WiRiam Milner mentions, at p. 2191, that a fine male was shot on the |18th of May, near the vil- lage of Eiccall, about nine miles from York; at p. 2229 Mr. Higgins mentions another killed near York on the 18th of July, its stomach filled with Dytisci and other Coleoptera; and at p. 2291 Mr. Gurney records the occurrence of a spe- cimen near Yarmouth on the 7th of June. In the volume for 1851 the Rev. James Smith records, at p. 3035, that a White Stork was Idlled in the severe winter of 1837—8 near the loch of Strathbeg, half- way between the towns of Peterhead and Fraserburgh : as usual with all “ vermin,” the countryman’s generic appellation of wild animals, fun-ed or feathered, it was nailed to the end of a barn. In the vo- lume for 1852 Mr. Irby records, at p'. 3476, the occurrence of a Stork on the 15th of March, 1852, on Breydon, near Yarmouth. In the volume for 1861 Mr. Stevenson$