THE STORK. 



175 



yrr, possessed of greater rapidity, it still gains 

 the ascendancy. They both often rise out of 

 sight ; but soon the spectator, who keeps his 

 eye fixed above, perceives them, like two 

 i specks, beginning to appear: they gather on 

 his eye for a little space, and shortly after 

 come tumbling perpendicularly together, with 

 great animosity on the side of the hawk, and 

 a loud screaming on that of the crane. Thus 

 driven to extremity, and unable to fly, the 

 poor animal throws itself upon its back, and, 

 in that situation, makes a most desperate de- 

 fence, till the sportsman coming up, generally 

 puts an end to the contest with its life. 



It was once the barbarous custom to breed 

 up cranes to be thus baited ; and young ones 

 were taken from the nest, to be trained up for 

 this cruel diversion. It is an animal easily 

 tamed ; and, if we can believe Albertus Mag- 

 nus, has a particular affection for man. This 

 quality, however, was not sufficient to guard 

 it from being made the victim of his tierce 

 amusements. The female, which is easily 

 distinguished from the male, by not being 

 bald behind as he is, never lays above two 

 eggs at a time ; being like those of a goose, 

 but of a bluish colour. The young ones are 

 soon fit to fly, and then the parents forsake 

 them to shift for themselves; but, before this 

 time, they are led forth to the places where 

 their food is most easily found. Though yet 

 unfledged, they run with such swiftness that 

 a man cannot easily overtake them. We are 

 told, that as they grow old, their plumage be- 

 comes darker; and as a proof of their lon- 

 gevity, Aldrovandus assures us, that a friend 

 of his kept one tame for above forty years. 



Whatever may have been the disposition of 

 the great, the vulgar of every country, to this 

 day, bear the crane a compassionate regard. 

 It is possible the ancient prejudices in its fa- 

 vour, which once having been planted are 

 eradicated but slowly, may still continue to 

 operate. In some countries, it is considered 

 as a heinous offence to kill a crane ; and though 

 the legislature declines to punish, yet the 

 people do not fail to resent the injury. The 

 crane, they, in some measure, consider as the 

 prophet of the season : upon its approach or 

 delay they regulate the periods of their rural 

 economy. If their favourite bird comes early 

 in the season, they expect a plentiful summer; 

 if he is slow in his visits, they then prepare 

 for an unfavourable spring. Whatever wis- 

 dom there may be in despising the prejudices 

 of the vulgar, there is but little in condemning 

 them. They have generally had their origin 

 in good motives ; and it should never be our 

 endeavours to suppress any tender emotions of 

 friendship or pity in those hard breasts that 

 are, in general, unsusceptible of either. 



CHAP. 111. 



THE STORK. 



IF we regard the Stork externally only, we 

 shall be very apt to confound it with the crane. 



1 In the methodical arrangements of Ray and Brisson 

 the Storks formed a distinct genus from the herons and 

 the cranes, with which, and with various other less 

 closely allied groups, they were united in the Linnean 

 system of classification. Later naturalists have, how- 

 ever, seen the necessity of reverting to the older method, 

 and of again separating these groups, which form in the 

 arrangement proposed by Mr Vigors two families, dis- 

 tinguished by well marked characters, and each compre- 

 hending several genera of considerable numerical ex- 

 tent. The first of these families is the Grudae, which 

 comprise the cranes, the trumpeter, and other nearly re- 

 lated genera, distinguished by the comparative shortness 

 and obtusen;ss of their bill, and the slight degree of pal- 

 mation exhibited by their feet, which are smaller in pro- 

 portion and consequently better adapted to the terrestrial 

 habits of these birds, as the bill is to their vegetable food. 

 The second is the Ardeidce, whose produced and gene- 

 rally pointed bill, and long, slender and more deeply 

 webbed toes, are equally well suited to their aquatic 

 habits, and to the nature of the food, chiefly fishes and 

 reptiles, on which they subsist. In the latter family are 

 comprehended not only the Storks and the Herons, but 

 also the spoonbills, the Ibis, and several other groups re- 

 markable as well for the singularity of their forms, as for 

 the peculiarity of their manners, and the interesting na- 

 ture of many of the facts connected with their history, 

 both as regards themselves and with reference to the 

 services which they actually render, or have been sup- 

 posed to render to mankind. 



The distinguishing characters of the genus which at 

 present engages our attention consist in a long straight 

 beak, broad at the base, regularly narrowing to the point, 

 opening to a moderate extent, and unimpressed on its 

 upper surface either with lateral furrows or with a nasal 

 pit; nostrils in the form of a longitudinal fissure, situ- 

 ated near the base of the bill and directed upwards; 

 tongue extremely short; eyes surrounded by a naked 

 skin ; wings broad, expanding to a great extent, and 

 prolonged posteriorly beyond the extremity of the tail; 

 legs reticulated with hexagonal scales, of which the up- 

 permost are the largest ; web between the two outer of 

 the anterior toes much more developed than that which 

 is found at the base of the inner ; posterior toe on the 

 same level with the anterior ones ; and claws broad, flat, 

 and obtuse, approaching in form to the nails of man, and 

 scarcely overlapping the extremities of the toes. 



The species thus characterised are especially remark- 

 able for the extent and regularity of their migrations, 

 which are chiefly determined by the nature of their food. 

 Tin's consists of various kinds of garbage, of worms and 

 insects, fishes and reptiles, and among the latter more 

 particularly of frogs. At the approach of the colder sea- 

 son, when these animals begin to conceal themselves in 

 holes, in order to pass the winter in a state of torpor, the 

 storks are driven by the failure of their usual means of 

 subsistence to seek a more temperate climate, in which 

 the same scarcity of food is not likely to be felt; but 

 they constantly return northwards with the return of 

 spring. The most common and the most celebrated 

 among them is the White Stork, (see Plate XIX. fig. 7.) 

 which generally passes its winters in the north of Africa, 

 and more particularly in Egypt, and migrates during the 

 summer season to France and Holland, Sweden, Ger. 

 many, Poland, and sometimes even Russia, but is ver 



