Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/602

 S T O S T Transactions (iv. pp. 269-351), though these two authors disagreed as to its affinities, the first placing it with the Storks, the last assigning it to the Herons. In singularity of aspect few birds surpass Baltetvieeps, with its gaunt grey figure, some five feet in height, its large head sur- mounted by a little curled tuft, the scowling expression of its eyes, and its huge bill in form not unlike a whale's head this last suggesting its generic name but tipped with a formidable hook. The shape of the bill has also prompted the Arabs to call it, according to their idiom, the "Father of a Shoe," and it has been designated " Shoe-bill " in English. 1 The other form that remains to be noticed is the Sco2ms umbretta of ornithologists, called the " Timbre " by Pennant. This was discovered by Adanson the French traveller in Senegal about the middle of the last century, and was described by Brisson in 1760. It has since been found to inhabit nearly the whole of Africa and Madagascar, and is the "Hammerkop" (Hammerhead) of the Cape colonists. Though not larger than a Eaven, it builds an enormous nest, some six feet in diameter, with a flat-topped roof and a small hole for entrance and exit, and placed either on a tree or a rocky ledge. 2 The bird, of an almost uniform brown colour, slightly glossed with purple, and its tail barred with black, has a long occipital crest, generally borne horizontally, so as to give rise to its common name. It is somewhat sluggish by day, but displays much activity at dusk, when it will go through a series of strange performances. In all the Storks, so far as is known, the eggs are white, and in most forms distinguishable by the grain of their shell, which, without being rough, is closely pitted with pore-like depressions. (A. N.) STORMS. See METEOROLOGY, vol. xvi. p. 154. STORY, JOSEPH (1779-1845), was born at Marble- head, Massachusetts, September 18, 1779, graduated at Harvard in 1798, and was admitted to the bar in Massa- chusetts in 1801. He was a member of the Democratic party, then weak in New England but all-powerful in the rest of the Union ; and his district made him its repre- sentative in Congress for 1808-9. In 1811 one of the associate-justiceships of the United States supreme court became vacant, and Story was appointed to it, retaining the office for life. Here he found his true sphere of work. The traditions of the American people, their strong pre- judice for the local supremacy of the States and against a centralized government, had yielded reluctantly to the establishment of the federal legislative and executive in 1789. The federal judiciary had been organized at the same time, but had never grasped the full measure of its powers. Soon after Story's appointment the supreme court began to bring out into plain view the powers which the constitution had given it over State courts and State legislation, The leading place in this work belongs to Chief-Justice John Marshall, but Story has a very large share in that remarkable series of decisions and opinions, from 1812 until 1832, by which the work was accom- plished. In addition to this he built up the department of admiralty law in the United States courts; and his Commentaries on the American Constitution are still the leading authority on the interpretation of that instrument. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was the head of the Harvard law school, September 10, 1845. See Story's Life and Letters of Joseph Story ; Story's Miscel- laneous Works ; Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the 1 Under one or other of these names it is mentioned by many African travellers ; but the best account of it is that given by Von Heuglin (Orn. Nordost-Afriktfs, pp. 1095-1099). In 1860 two living birds were brought to England by Mr Petherick and exhibited in the Zoological Gardens. 2 Two figures of the nest are given by Holub and Von Pelzeln (Beitr. Orn. Siidafrikas, p. 279). United States, and a great number of standard law-books of which he was the author. His supreme court decisions are in Cranch's, Wheaton's, and Peters's Reports; his circuit decisions in Gallison's, Mason's, Sumner's, and Story's Reports. STOTHARD, CHARLES ALFRED (1786-1821), antiqua- rian draughtsman, son of Thomas Stothard, noticed below, was born in London on July 5, 1786. After studying in the schools of the Royal Academy, he began, in 1810, his first historical piece, the Death of Richard II. in Pomfret Castle. Having taken a strong interest from an early period in the costumes of different ages and nations, he published in 1811 the first part of his valuable work, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. He was appointed historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, and was deputed by that body to visit Bayeux, to make draw- ings of the well-known tapestry. He was made a fellow of the society in 1819, and subsequently engaged in numer- ous journeys with the view of illustrating the works of D. Lysons. While engaged in tracing a portrait from one of the windows of the church of Beer-Ferrers, Devonshire, he fell and was killed on the spot (May 27, 1821). His widow (afterwards Mrs Bray), along with her brother, completed his Monumental Effigies, left unfinished at his death. A biography, by his widow, was published in 1823. STOTHARD, THOMAS (1755-1834), subject painter, was born in London on August 17, 1755, the son of a well-to-do innkeeper in Long Acre. Being a delicate child, he was sent at the age of five to a relative in Yorkshire, and attended school at Acomb, and afterwards at Tad- castle and at Ilford in Essex. Showing a turn for draw- ing he was apprenticed to a draughtsman of patterns for brocaded silks in Spitalfields, and during his leisure hours he attempted illustrations to the works of his favourite poets. Some of these drawings were praised by Harrison, the editor of the Novelist's Library, and, Stothard's master having died, he resolved to devote himself to art. In 1778 he became a student of the Royal Academy, of which he was elected associate in 1791, full academician in 1794, and librarian in 1817. He married before he was thirty; and it is recorded that, after attending the wedding ceremony, he spent the afternoon in quietly drawing in the schools, and, on leaving, requested a fellow student to accompany him "to a family party." "Do come," he said, " for I have this day taken unto myself a wife." He died in London on the 27th of April 1834. Among his earliest book illustrations are plates engraved for Ossian and for Bell's Poets; and in 1780 he became a regular con- tributor to the Novelist's Library, for which he executed one hundred and forty-eight designs, including his eleven admirable illustrations to Peregrine Pickle and his graceful subjects from Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison. Soon his hands were full of work, for all commissions were welcome to him. He contentedly designed plates for pocket-books, tickets for concerts, illustrations to almanacs, portraits of popular players, and into even the slightest and most trivial sketches he infused a grace and distinc- tion which render them of value to the collectors of the present time. Among his more important series are the two sets of illustra- tions to Robinson Crusoe, and the plates to The Pilgrim's Progress (1788), to The Rape of the Lock (1798), to the works of Gessner (1802), to Cowper's Poems (1825), and to The Decameron; while his figure-subjects in the superb editions of Roger's Italy (1830) and Poems (1834) prove that even in latest age his fancy was still unexhausted and his hand hardly at all enfeebled. He is at his best in subjects of a domestic or a gracefully ideal sort; the heroic and the tragic were beyond his powers. The designs by Stothard have been estimated by Mr Wornum to number five thousand, and of these about three thousand have been engraved. His oil pictures are usually small in size, and rather sketchy in handling. Their colouring is often rich and glowing, being founded upon the prac- tice of Rubens, of whom Stothard was a great admirer. He was a contributor to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, but his best-known painting is the Procession of the Canterbury Pilgrims, the engraving from which, begun by Schiavonetti and finished by Heath, attained an immense popularity. It was followed by a companion work, the Flitch of Bacon, which was drawn in sepia for the engraver, but was never carried out in colour. In addition to his easel pictures. Stothard adorned the grand