THE STORK. 



309 



dered as gifted with reasoning powers. The prophet Jeremiah, 

 speaking of their knowledge, contrasts their instinctive obedi- 

 ence to their Creator's laws with the culpable departure there- 

 from by those on whom God has bestowed the higher gifts of 

 reason and understanding : " Yea, the Stork in the heaven 

 knoweth her appointed times ; and the Turtle, and the Crane, 

 and the Swallow observe the time of their coming ; but my 

 people know not the judgment of the Lord " (Jer. viii. 7). 



So punctual is the arrival and departure of the various 

 migratory birds, that to this day the Persians, as well as 



The Stork. 



ancient Arabs, often form their almanacs on their movements. 

 Thus, the beginning of the singing of the Nightingales was 

 the commencement of a festival, welcoming the return of warm 

 weather ; while the coming of the Storks was the period of 

 another, announcing' their joy at the departure of winter. 

 The expression, " The Stork in the heaven," is more appli- 

 cable than at first appears ; for even when out of sight its 

 pathway may be traced by the loud and piercing cries, peculiar 

 to those of the New as well as of the Old World. In America,* 

 too, its migrations are equally regular, passing its immense 

 periodical journeys at such a prodigious height as to be seldom 

 * Heaune's Journey in So th America. 



