THE ■WHITE STORK. 



The White Stork generally stands from three feet and a-half tu four feet in heij5;ht, 

 including its neck. The legs are exceedingly long, and do not appear sufficiently thick 

 for the bulk they sustain ; the feet are webbed. The beak is straight, long, pointed, and 

 compressed. The stork walks slowly, and with measured steps ; but its flight is powerful 

 and long-continued, and it is accustomed to traverse the higher regions of the air, 



" Wlicrf till' lUiiiic loses its uuijoslic foi'co 

 In Belf^ian ])lains- won iVom the ragin ;■ dee;) 

 By diligence amazing, and the strong 

 Uliconquci'ing liand of Lilieity, — 

 The stork-assembly meets ; for many a Any 

 Consulting deej) and various, ere they take 

 Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky. 

 And now their route designed, their leaders cho3e, 

 Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings, 

 And many a circle, numy a short essay, 

 AVhcel'd round and round, in congregation full 

 'i'hc figur'd Hight as-jends, and, rising high 

 'Ihe aerial billows, mixes witli the clouds." t" 



Storks are thus birds of passage. They spend the winter in the deserts of Africa and 

 Arabia, and in summer relurn to towns and villay-es in colder hititudes, where they build 

 their r.ests on the sunnnits of old towers and belfries, on tlie cliimneys of tlu' highest 

 houses, and sometimes in dead trees. In marsliy districts, where the services of the bird 

 in destroying reptiles are of great value, the people fix an old cart-wheel, by the nave, in 

 an horizontal position, to tlie extremity of a long perpendicular pole ; — an accommodu- 



Ciconia nlba. 



t Thomson. 



