C I C O N I A. 



45 



most composure ; " and if you will condescend to repair 

 with me to the bank of the river to-morrow morning, 

 I will convince you of the fact." Morning came, the 

 river was visted, and sure enough there was a number 

 of storks, all of which appeared to have but one leg. 

 " There they are, sir," said the cook, " and you see 

 there are no more legs than storks." " Hoo ! " said 

 the muster, upon which every stork displayed his 

 other leg. " Now," said the master, " have not I 

 convinced you what a cheat you are ?" "I beg your 

 pardon, sir," said the cook, " not one of these storks 

 put down his other leg till you cried ' hoo,' and of 

 course if you had cried ' hoo' to the stork yesterday, he 

 would have put down his other leg too." We shall 

 now give some account of some of the principal 

 species. 



WHITE STORK (Ciconia alba). White, with the 

 orbits naked and crimson ; quills and upper tail- 

 coverts dusky green. The irides are brown ; and the 

 feathers on the breast long and pendulous. Length 

 about three feet and a half; extent of wing upwards 

 of six feet ; size about that of a turkey. The young 

 have the black of the wings tinged with brown, and 

 the bill of a dusky red. A pure white variety, called 

 Sterchi by the Bulgarians, is found in the valley of 

 the lower Danube. 



From the familiarity of their disposition, and its 

 other moral habits, the stork is one of the most popular 

 of littoral birds, and has been generally regarded as 

 the friend of man, attached to his dwellings, nestling 

 on roofs and chimneys, catering on the banks of the 

 most frequented rivers, in cultivated fields, and almost 

 in gardens, not even shrinking from the bustle of 

 crowded cities, taking up its abode in towers, and 

 everywhere respected and welcomed. In Holland 

 it is protected, because it checks the multiplication 

 of reptiles in the marshes and humid flats ; the Vau- 

 dois cherish and venerate it for its friendly offices; 

 the Arabs, in like manner, treat it with the most hos- 

 pitable regard ; and the Turks and eastern tribes 

 consider it as a sacred bird, which they are forbidden 

 to kill. At Constantinople, accordingly, the storks 

 build their nests in the streets ; but in other countries 

 they generally prefer a lofty situation. A mussulman 

 cannot patiently bear to see one of them molested; 

 and the ancient Thessalians made the killing of them 

 a capital crime. The Moors, too, religiously abstain 

 from offering violence to them ; and hence the valley 

 of Monkazem appears to be the resort of all the storks 

 of Barbary, which, in this district, are more numerous 

 than the inhabitants. 



The white stork is of gentle manners, easily tamed, 

 and manifests a sense of cleanliness. Although it 

 has a pensive and even melancholy air, it occasionally 

 indulges in gaiety and pastime, associating even with 

 children, and partaking of their amusements. " I saw 

 in a garden," says Dr. Hermann, " iu which the chil- 

 dren were playing at hide and seek, a tame stork join 

 the party, run its turn when touched, and distinguish 

 the child who was to pursue the rest so well as, along 

 with the others, to be on its guard." Among the 

 engaging attributes of these birds have been justly 

 reckoned gratitude, conjugal fidelity, and filial anc 

 parental affection. They seem in fact to be very 

 sensible of kind treatment saluting, with a noisy flap 

 ping of their wings, the houses whose inmates hac 

 given them a friendly reception during the preceding 

 season, and repeating the same ceremony on taking 

 leave. With wonderful constancy the same pai 



eturn to the same haunts, and join in mutual and 

 ond caresses after their long voyage. The tender 

 affection which the stork manifests towards her young, 

 las been proverbial even from remote antiquity. She 

 eeds them for a considerable period, nor quits them 

 ill they are strong enough to defend themselves, and 

 o provide for their own subsistence. When they 

 )egin to flutter about the nest, she bears them on 

 icr wings, and protects them from danger ; and she 

 las been known rather to perish along with them 

 han abandon them to their fate, an affecting instance 

 of which was exhibited in the town of Delft, in 1636, 

 vhen a fire broke out iu a house that had a stork's 

 lest on it, containing young that were then unable to 

 ly. The old stork, returning with some meat for 

 hem, and seeing the danger in which they were 

 exposed, the fire having almost reached the nest, 

 nade several attempts to save them, but, finding all 

 n vain, she at last spread her wings over them, and 

 n that endearing attitude expired with them in the 

 lames. Young storks have also often been observed 

 to lavish the most affectionate and assiduous cares 

 on their aged and infirm parents ; and the ancient 

 Greeks, observant of this striking instinct, enacted a 

 aw to compel children to support the authors of their 

 xistence, and the guardians of their infant years. 



The stork is capable of sustaining a lofty flight, 

 and of performing long journeys even in tempestuous 

 weather. When on wing it pushes its head straight 

 forward, with the feet extended backward. It returns 

 to Alsace about the end of February, to Switzerland 

 in the course of March, and to Germany early in 

 May, but it rarely visits this country. If a pair on 

 their return find their former nest deranged or demo- 

 lished, they repair it with sticks, rushes, and other 

 plants that grow in moist situations. It is usually 

 placed on high roofs, the battlements of towers, and 

 sometimes on the tops of tall trees, on the brinks of 

 streams, or on the projection of a precipitous rock. 

 In France it was formerly customary to lay wheels 

 on the roofs of houses to induce them to build on 

 them, a practice which still exists in some places. 

 In Holland boxes are placed on the roofs of houses 

 for the same purpose. The hatch consists of two, 

 three, or four eggs of a yellowish sordid white, larger 

 than those of the goose, but not so thick. The male 

 sits on them while the female is abroad for food. 

 The young make their appearance in the course of a 

 month, when the parents diligently search for and 

 carry to them the proper aliment, which they disgorge 

 from their gullet or stomach. Both parents never 

 leave the young at the same time, but while the one 

 is ranging in quest of food, the other keeps watch, 

 standing on one leg in the manner above described, 

 and with its eye steadily fixed on its charge. When 

 the young first break the shell, they are covered with 

 brownish dosvn ; and their legs are so weak that they 

 are not able to move in the nest in any other way 

 than by shuffling about upon their knees. W r hen 

 their wings begin to acquire strength, their mothers 

 accompany them in easy flights, though it is rather 

 too much to assert, as is sometimes done, that they 

 literally tench them to fly. There is no teaching, in 

 the ordinary sense of the word, among animals of any 

 kind, either in motion or in voice. The supposed 

 teaching in walking or flight is merely the old ones 

 keeping company instinctively with the young ; and 

 the teaching of music is simply rivalry in that impulse 

 which occasions the song. 



