198 THE WHITE STORK. 



birds, who are tired and feeble with their long 

 flight, supported at times on the backs of the 

 young; and the peasants speak of it as a cer- 

 tainty, that many of these are, when they return 

 to their home, laid carefully in the old nests, and 

 cherished by the young ones, which they reared 

 with so much care the spring before. If the ac- 

 count this gentleman gives (says Sir John) be 

 singular, it is in no part unnatural. We see in- 

 numerable instances of what we call instinct, and 

 who shall say that this is too great for credit? 

 Who shall lay down laws to determine where the 

 gifts of a Creator to his creatures shall stop, or 

 how they shall be limited." 



This filial devotion of the stork has long been 

 marked by man, and justly admired. When 

 the ancient Greeks passed a law, obliging children 

 to support their parents, .they gave it a name 

 which had reference to this bird. " Its very name 

 in the Hebrew language," says a modern writer, 

 " signifies mercy, or piety ; and its English 

 name is taken, if not directly, yet secondarily, 

 through the Saxon, from the Greek word storge, 

 which is often used in our language for natural 

 affection."* 



Among the Romans the appearance of a stork 



* Harris's.Nat. Hist, of the Bible. 



