THE STORK. 161 



clawed like those of other birds, but flat, like the nails of a man. 

 Its true distinctions, however, are to be taken rather from its man- 

 ner than its form. The crane has a loud piercing voice ; the stork 

 is silent, and produces no other noise than the clucking of its under 

 chap against the upper : the crane has a strange convolution of the 

 windpipe through the breast bone ; the stork's is formed hi the usual 

 manner : the crane feeds mostly upon vegetables and grain ; the 

 stork preys entirely upon frogs, fishes, birds, and serpents : the crane 

 avoids towns and populous places; the stork lives always in or 

 nearthenj: the crane lays but two eggs, and the stork generally 

 four. These are distinctions fully sufficient to mark the species, 

 notwithstanding the shnilitude of their form. 



It was probably on account of the description of food upon which 

 this bird preys, that it was prohibited as an article of food to the 

 Jewish people, Lev. xi. 19, &-c. 



The Hebrew name of the stork, is strikingly characteristic of its 

 disposition, signifying benignity or affection, for which it is remarka- 

 ble, as is attested by the most unexceptionable witnesses. 



Parkhurst has given an interesting description of the stork from 

 the Inspector, a periodical paper ascribed to that eminent naturalist, 

 Sir John Hill, which sets this feature in its character in a strong 

 and beautiful light. 



' The two parents feed and guard each brood ; one always re- 

 maining on it, while the other goes for food. They keep the young 

 ones much longer in the nest than any other bird ; and after they 

 have led them out of it by day, they bring them back at night ; 

 preserving it as their natural and proper home. 



' When they first take out the young, they practise them to fly ; 

 and they lead them to the marshes, and to the hedge-sides, point- 

 ing them out the frogs, and serpents, and lizards, which are their 

 proper food ; and they will seek out toads, which they never eat, 

 and take great pains to make the young distinguish them.' At the 

 time of their return, after having visited some warmer climate 

 during the winter months, this writer states, that ' it is not un- 

 common to see several of the old birds, which are tired and feeble 

 with t-he long flight, supported at times on the back of the young ; 

 and the peasants speak of it as a certainty, that many of these are 

 when they return to their home, laid carefully in the old nests, and 

 fed and cherished by the young ones, which they reared with so 

 much care during the spring before.' 



To the protection which the stork affords her young, there is 

 evidently an allusion in Job xxxix, 13: 'The wing of the ostrich 

 is quivering or expanded : [but] is it the wing of the stork and its 

 plumage?' That is, is it, like that, employed in protecting and 

 providing for the creature's offspring? No : for ' she (the ostrich) 

 depositeth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them on the sand, 

 and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, and that the wild 

 beast of the field may break them.' This leads us to notice the as- 



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