556 



A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER CXIV. 



THE, STORK. 



IF we regard the Stork externally only, we 

 shall be very apt to confound it with the crane. 

 It is of the same size ; it has the same forma- 

 tion as to the bill, neck, legs, and body, ex- 

 cept that it is something more corpulent. Its 

 dilferenccs are but very slight ; such as the 

 colour, which, in the crane, is ash and black, 

 but in the stork is white and brown. The 

 nails of the toes of the stork also are very 

 peculiar; not being clawed like those of other 

 birds, but flat like the nails of a man. 



These, however, are but very slight dif- 

 ferences ; and its true distinctions are to be 

 taken rather from its manners than its form. 

 The crane has a loud piercing voice ; the 

 stork is silent, and produces no other noise 

 than the clacking of its under-chap against 

 the upper: the crane has a strange convolu- 

 tion of the wind-pipe through the breast-bone; 

 the stork's is formed in 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 near them : the crane lays but 

 two eggs ; and the stork generally four. 

 These are distinctions fully sufficient to mark 

 the species, notwithstanding the similitude of 

 their form. 



Storks are birds of passage, like the former; 

 but it is hard to say whence they come or 

 whither they go. When they withdraw from 

 Europe, they all assemble on a particular 

 day. and never leave one of their company 

 behind them. They take their flight in the 

 night ; which is the reason the way they go 



Storks take their departure from Europe in the au- 

 tumn, and pass into Egypt and the marshes of Barbary : 

 there they enjoy a second summer, and there they pair, 

 lay again, arid bring up a second brood. Mrs. Starke, in 

 her Letters on Italy, mentions a singular instance of the 

 sagacity of these birds. " A wild stork was brought by a 

 farmer, in the neighbourhood of Hamburg, into his poul- 

 try-yard, to be the companion of a tame one he had long 



has never been observed. They generally 

 return into Europe in the middle of March, 

 and make their nests on the tops of chimneys 

 and houses, as well as of high trees. The 

 females lay from two to four eggs, of the size 

 and colour of those of geese ; and the male 

 and female sit upon them by turns. They 

 are a month in hatching ; and when their 

 young are excluded, they are particularly 

 solicitous for their safety." 



As the food of these birds consists in a 

 great measure of frogs and perperits, it is not 

 to be wondered at that different nations have 

 paid them a particular veneration. The 

 Dutch are very solicitous for the preserva- 

 tion of the stork, in every part of their repub- 

 lic. This bird seems to have taken refuge 

 among their towns ; and builds on the lops of 

 their houses without any molestation. There 

 it is seen resting familiarly in the streets, and 

 protected as well by the laws as the prejudi- 

 ces of the people. They have even got an 

 opinion that it will only live in a republic; 

 and that story of its filial piety, first falsely 

 propagated of the crane, has in part been 

 ascribed to the stork. But it is not in repub- 

 lics alone that the stork is seen to reside, as 

 there are few towns on the continent, in low 

 marshy situations, but have the stork as an 

 inmate among them; as well the despotic prin- 

 ces of Germany, as the little republics of Italy. 



The stork seems a general favourite even 

 among the moderns ; but with the ancient 

 Egyptians their regard was carried even to 

 adoration. This enlightened people, who 

 worshipped the Deity in his creatures, paid 



kept there : but the tame stork disliking a rival, fell upon 

 the poor stranger, and beat him so unmercifully, that he 

 was compelled to take wing, and escaped with difficulty. 

 About four months afterwards, however, he returned to 

 the poultry-yard, recovered of his wounds, and at- 

 tended by three other storks ; who no sooner alighted, 

 than they all together fell upon the tame stork, and killed 

 him. 



