Online Encyclopedia

STORK (A. S. store, Ger. Storch)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 968 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STORK (A. S. store, Ger. Storch)  , the Ciconia
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alba of
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ornithology, a well-known
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bird, which, however, though often visiting Britain, has never been a native or even inhabitant of that country . It is a summer visitor to most parts of the
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European continent—the chief exceptions being France (where the native
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race has been destroyed), Italy and Russia—breeding from
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southern Sweden to Spain and
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Greece, and being especially
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common in Poland.' It reappears again in
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Asia Minor, the
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Caucasus,
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Persia and Turkestan, but farther to the eastward it is replaced by an allied
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species, C. boyciana, which reaches
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Japan . Though occasionally using trees (as was most likely its
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original habit) for the purpose, the stork most generally places its
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nest on buildings,2 a fact familiar to travellers in Den-mark, Holland and Germany, and it is nearly everywhere a cherished guest, popular belief ascribing good
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luck to the house to which it attaches itself.3 Its food, consisting mainly of frogs and
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insects, is gathered in the neighbouring pastures, across which it may be seen stalking with an air of quiet dignity; but in the season of love it indulges in gestures which can only be called grotesque—leaping from the ground with extended wings in a kind of dance, and, absolutely voiceless as it is, making a loud noise by the clattering of its mandibles . At other times it may be seen gravely resting on one leg on an elevated place, thence to sweep aloft and circle with a slow and majestic
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flight . Apart from its considerable size—and a stork stands more than three feet in height—its contrasted plumage of pure white and deep black, with its bright red
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bill and legs, makes it a conspicuous and beautiful
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object, especially when seen against the fresh green grass of a luxuriant meadow . In winter the storks of
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Europe retire to Africa—some of them, it would seem, reaching Cape Colony—while those of Asia visit India . A second species, with much the same range, but with none of its relative's domestic disposition, is the black stork, C. nigra, of which the upper parts are black, brilliantly glossed with
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purple, copper and green, while it is white beneath—the bill and legs, with a patch of
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bare skin round the eyes, being red . The bird breeds in lofty trees, generally those growing in a large
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forest . Two other dark-coloured, but somewhat abnormal, species are the purely
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African C. abdimii and the C. episcopus, which has a wider range, being found not only in Africa but in India,
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Java and
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Sumatra . The New
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World has only one true stork, D.issura maguari, which inhabits South
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America, and resembles not. a little the . C. boyciana above mentioned, differing therefrom in its greenish-white bill and black tail . Both these species. are very like C. alba, but are larger and have a bare patch of red skin round the eyes .

The storks

form the
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family Ciconiidae, and together with the ibises (Ibididae) are now ranked as a sub-order of Ciconiiform birds (see BIRD) . There is no doubt that they include. the
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jabiru (q.v.) and its allies, as well as the curious genus Aiiastomus (known in India as the open-bill," because its
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lower 'mandible is hollowed out so as only to meet the maxilla at the
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base and the tip), of which there are an African and an
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Asiatic species . In all the storks the eggs are white and pitted with granular depressions . (A .

End of Article: STORK (A. S. store, Ger. Storch)
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