THE STORK. 34? 



man of undoubted veracity, who had been visiting at 

 the house and seen the preserved remains of the dead 

 Stork and Gosling. It may be added, that in the part 

 of Germany where this occurrence took place, there is a 

 superstition prevalent, that a Stork never builds on a 

 bad man's house, and to such an extent is this notion 

 carried, that if a man were suspected, even of murder, 

 the people could scarcely be induced to bring him before 

 the magistrates, if a Stork was known to build on his 

 house. This is mentioned as one amongst other reasons 

 why the gentleman permitted such, in some respects, 

 troublesome birds to build on his chimney-top unmolested. 



We suspect that constancy and fidelity amongst birds 

 exist to a greater degree than we are aware of; what- 

 ever testimony can be collected on the subject certainly 

 tends to prove it. Thus, a pair of Magpies had built 

 their nest in a tree, where they were constantly under 

 the observation of a person whose house was near at 

 hand. One morning early, during the absence of the 

 male, the female flew from her tree to a field hard by, 

 where she was soon joined by a male, who paid her 

 great attention. During this interview the mate re- 

 turned to the nest, and on seeing his partner hopping 

 about familiarly with another, he immediately darted 

 upon the guilty parties, and attacking them with the 

 greatest anger and fierceness, put them to flight, and 

 followed them : whether he killed his faithless partner 

 or not was unknown, but she never returned ; and the 

 deserted widower, after occasionally visiting his nest for 

 a day or two, finally quitted, and disappeared altogether. 

 It is not improbable, indeed, that similar suspicions or 

 prejudices may have been the cause of some of the mys- 

 terious meetings already mentioned, in which individuals 

 were put to death. 



Of this tribe, there is one which, from its extraordi- 

 nary size, shape, and appearance, deserves to be particu- 

 larly noticed. It is called the Gigantic Crane (Ardea 



