167 



me, assuredly these two birds should at this moment have formed a part and par- 

 cel of my domestic establishment, and you, Mr. Editor, might have haply been gra- 

 tified with a more minute detail of the habits of this beautiful portion of the fea- 

 thered creation. 



Storks, (Ciconia). Who that has traversed Holland, Belgium, &c, has 

 has not exclaimed, as they first caught sight of these birds, " Look at the Storks !" 

 as one or two, statue-like, motionless as mai-ble, balanced on a single slender leg, 

 presented themselves to view, perched on the summit of a picturesque chimney top, 

 like a grotesque colume whose capital was an overhanging bush of thorns and 

 twigs. There they stand, with the addition, if later in the season, of some two, 

 three, or four queer-looking, puffy, amorphous-looking things by them, which, but 

 for projecting beaks ever and anon gaping and shutting with a sort of clacking 

 sound, might be taken for an accumulation of cotton fluffs. Should only one of 

 these immoveable sentinels be on its post, the spectator will do well to continue on 

 the watch ; for in a very few minutes his attention will be drawn to the arrival of 

 a partner in the nursery proceedings of the chimney top, slowly and gracefully 

 gliding through the air, and taking position within neck's reach of the puff-bodied 

 offspring. Pausing for a moment, the fresh comer's neck is stretched forth, and the 

 head bent at a right angle, so as to place the beak in a perpendicular position between 

 the mandibles of one of the expectant candidates for the produce of the parental 

 craw. Another moment's pause, and then the perpendicular beak, opening with 

 a sort of spasmodic jerk, disgorges the result of its forage in their fens and 

 marshes, with unerring aim, down the throat of the recipient young one, which, 

 with quivering extacy, gulps down the semi-digested mass of frogs, minnows, or 

 other gelatinous materials provided for the repast ; which being finished, all the 

 parties concerned resume, for a time, their motionless and noiseless attitude. They 

 look the pictures of meditation ; and who shall say that those grave heads are not 

 dwelling on subjects surpassing man's understanding ? There is one who has 

 given them a power of thought and discrimination unpossessed and unintelligible 

 to us, by which, with a truth which sets the skill of the most experienced navigator 

 at defiance, the Stork learneth its appointed time, and when and how to wend its 

 way to other regions destined to be its residence for the remainder of the year. 

 Were these feathered philosophers allowed utterance but for an hour, how much 

 might they disclose of the instinctive machinery whereby the Creator provides for 

 the well-being of all his living works ! and with what admiration should we be 

 made partakers of this additional development of the expansive agency of Omni- 

 potence ! 



I shall conclude my few ornithological remarks by alluding to the small 

 number of birds, generally speaking, usually met with on the continent. These 

 observations have been forced upon me repeatedly in the many excursions I have, 

 at various times, made in all directions. Magpies, Jays, and even Crows, are, in 



