The Stork. 229 



of the moulting birds float on the water, but the 

 swallow is not yet gone. The deep Alpine valleys 

 seethe with swirling mist, which rises into gathering 

 cloud, and soon becomes stormy rain beating upon 

 the plains, as we may see it in any ' Loamshire ' 

 of our own, that lies below the stony hills of a 

 wilder and wetter country-side. In this striking 

 and truthful passage, Virgil has not followed his 

 model too closely, but was evidently thinking of 

 what he must often have witnessed himself. 



The Stork is only mentioned by Virgil in a 

 single passage 



Cum vere rubenti 

 Candida venit avis longis invisa colubris. 1 



Doubtless the bird arrived in great numbers 

 in spring on the Mantuan marshes, and found 

 abundance of food there in the way of frogs and 

 snakes. Its snake-eating propensity was con- 

 sidered so valuable in Thessaly, that the bird was 

 preserved there by law, says Aristotle. 2 But did 

 it remain to breed in Italy ? It is remarkable 



1 In blushing spring 



Comes the white bird long-bodied snakes abhor. Georg. ii. 320. 

 2 Mirabilia 23. 



