LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



you?" When autumn came the same ceremony 

 was gone through ; the stork clattering " Good- 

 by, your honor ;" and the master saying, " A 

 pleasant journey to you, old boy." 



Another ancient, not contented'with mere empty 

 greeting, is stated to have brought every time he 

 returned a root of ginger, which, after a sufficient 

 exordium of clattering, was disgorged as a new- 

 year's gift to the master of the house. 



Every one knows the story of the little dog 

 that brought a bigger one to revenge his wrongs 

 upon an over-grown bully ; but Oppian caps this 

 when he tells us that once upon a time a huge 

 serpent contrived year after year to insinuate 

 itself into the nest of a stork, and destroy its 

 young. At last the bereaved parents brought 

 back with them another bird, which had never 

 been previously seen, shorter than a stork, but 

 with a great sharp sword-like beak. When the 

 nestlings were ripe for slaughter, forth crept the 

 serpent ; but this time he was confronted by the 

 warlike ally, and a fierce combat ensued between 

 the bird and the reptile, which at length termi- 

 nated in the death of the murderous aggressor ; not, 

 however, with impunity on the part of the defend- 

 er of nestlings, which suffered so severely from 

 the poisonous bite of the snake that all his feath- 

 ers fell off, The grateful storks, seeing this, 

 would not leave their benefactor to his fate, but 

 cherished him, and delayed their departure till his 

 feathers grew again, and he was able to accom- 

 pany them ; when the whole party flew away 

 together. 



Of their love of chastity and hatred of infidel- 

 ity, which they punish with the utmost severity, 

 the ancients tell equally edifying tales. Does a 

 storkess go wrong, her stork finds it out and takes 

 no notice to her ; but quietly flies off and brings 

 a crowd of avengers with him, who tear the adul- 

 tress to pieces. Beware all ye on whose house- 

 top a stork nestles ! Be sure he will find your 

 sin out. The slave was very joyous with his 

 beautiful but frail mistress in the absence of his 

 master ; till, one fine morning, the stork of the 

 house, taking him at advantage, flew at him and 

 pecked his eyes out. 



When the storks return, the males are said to 

 precede the females some days, during which time 

 they refit the nests and make all ready and com- 

 fortable for their better halves. And when these 

 arrive, each flying to her own mate, ye gods ! 

 what billing, and clattering, and hymeneal joys do 

 abound, if we are to believe the old chronicles. 



For temperance, too, the stork was as highly 

 praised by the ancients as Father Mathew is by 

 the moderns. 



But the piety of the bird ! Ah, there was its 

 strong point. Did it not give the hint for the 

 Leges Ciconiarite, by which children were com- 

 pelled to support their parents, and are they 

 not law to this day ? If you doubt, turn to the 

 Birds of Aristophanes, and his sharp satire upon 

 the unplumed biped there extant. 



Did not the pious ^Eneas, when he bore the 



good Anchises on his shoulders, learn from the 

 stork which, even when danger did not threaten, 

 and his aged parent had been obliged to take to 

 the nest again in his second chickhood, carried 

 the infirm ancient out for an airing on his more 

 juvenile shoulders? What says the old French 

 quatraine ? 



Le Cicogneau, ayant prins sa croissance 

 Porte et nourrit ses pe're et we're vieux. 

 Ainsi chacun d'aider soit envieux 

 Son pere vieil tombe en decadence. 



And the parental was equal to the filial piety 

 of these birds. Witness the true story of th'e 

 devoted mother at the great fire of Delft. The 

 flames raged and crackled on every side : they 

 gained the roof where the nest with its callow 

 young lay. The distracted parent tried in vain, 

 by every means in her power, to convey her 

 young from the danger, but her most strenuous 

 efforts were unavailing ; and then, singed with the 

 fire and half-suffocated by the smoke, she spread 

 her wings over them, pressed them to her bosom, 

 and perished with them. 



So much for what may be termed the good 

 moral qualities of the stork ; now let us take a 

 glance at its physical structure. 



Mounted on two long bare legs covered with a 

 scaly skin, fit armor against the tooth of Cleopatra's 

 asp, the light body is justly balanced. The toes 

 are webbed to the first joint from the divarication ; 

 so that, if in wading it should suddenly get out of 

 its depth, the safety of the bird is provided for. 

 The extensive wings, framed for wafting the 

 animated vessel on its lofty aerial voyage, are 

 worked by powerful muscles ; while the head, 

 thrown back by the long neck on the body, lies 

 compact, and the extended legs aid the compara- 

 tively short tail in regulating the course of the 

 animated balloon. When on the feed the neck is 

 either stretched out, or, if the bird be watching for 

 its prey, drawn back upon the shoulders, ready to 

 dart forth the spear-like beak in a moment. Ser- 

 pents, lizards, fish, and frogs, are its favorite food, 

 and hence the respect in which it is held by all 

 nations to whom it comes a welcome and regular 

 visitor. Toads it will eat if pressed by hunger, 

 but not for choice, eschewing most probably the 

 acrid exudation which is discharged from the 

 tubercles of that reptile's skin. 



He who in the summer glides near the banks 

 of what was once the silver Thames sees the 

 tempting bait of " LIVE FISH" hung out from 

 many a sign, which too often lies like a bulletin. 

 Now the stork's repast is very frequently a truly 

 animated one, and he not unfrequently .feels the 

 inconvenience of a too lively dinner, anxious to 

 escape by one of the doors mentioned by Dr. Last 

 in the course of his examination. " I know them," 

 saith the worthy Joannes Faber, " who have 

 learned by ocular inspection that storks, when such 

 serpents as they swallow passed alive through 

 their bodies (as they will do several times,) use 

 to clap their tails against a wall so long till they 

 feel the serpents dead within them." 



