WHITE STORK. 177 



CICONIA ALBA, Bechstein. 



WHITE STOEK. 



"Ciconia raro hue advolat/' wrote Sir Thomas 

 Browne,* in a letter to Dr. Merrett, in 1668, quoting, 

 indeed, the latter's own words,t but adding, " I have 

 seen two in a watery marsh, eight miles off [Norwich] ; 

 another shot, whose case is yet to be seen." Again, 

 in his "Account of birds found in Norfolk," he speaks 

 of having seen the ^'Ciconia, or Stork, in the fens, 

 and some have been shot in the marshes between this 

 [Norwich] and Yarmouth;" whilst Willughby, in his 

 "Ornithology," expresses his obligation to his "hon- 

 oured friend," Sir Thomas, for "a picture of one of these 

 birds, taken on the coast of Norfolk, drawn by the 

 life, with a short description of it," which specimen, in 

 confinement,! "readily eat frogs and land-snails, but 

 refused toads." Turner years before (1544) had stated 

 " Ciconia, ut Germanis auis est notissima, ita Britannis 

 meis plerisque omnibus tam ignota est, quam quae om- 

 nium ignotissima. Nee mirum, quum nusquam in insula 

 nostra nisi captiua Ciconia uideatur ;" and Jonston, 

 whose work 1 1 bears a figure of this bird on its frontis- 



* See Wilkin's Ed. of Sir Thomas Browne's works, vol. i., p. 398. 



t " Pinax Eerum Naturalium Britannicarum." Londini : 

 MDCLXVII., p. 181. 



J The following occurs in the "Extracts from Sir T. Browne's 

 Common Place Books " (vol. iv., p. 399), amongst other " empirical" 

 remedies for gout suggested for trial by the learned doctor to 

 some querulous friend " unsatisfied with the many rational medi- 

 cines." " Since you find no benefit in the noble plasters of the 

 Duke of Wirtemberg, of King James, and of Charles the Fifth, 

 try the empl. ciconice made up of stercus ciconice." We are not 

 told, however, whether the patient was actually supplied with this 

 precious ointment, from the captive stork in Sir Thomas's garden. 



II "Historiae ISTaturalis de Auibvs Libri vi." Erancofurti ad 

 Maenum : m.d.c.l. 

 2 A 



