THE STORK. 3J9 



of another, announcing their joy at the departure of Winter. 

 The expression, " the Stork in the Heaven," is more applicable 

 than at first appears, for even when out of sight, its pathway 

 may be traced by the loud and piercing cries, peculiar to those 

 of the New as well as of the Old world.* In America,t too, 

 its migrations are equally regular, passing its immense 

 periodical journeys at such a prodigious height as to be 

 seldom observed. It is satisfactory thus to strengthen the 

 authority of a Scriptural passage from so distant a source, 

 though amply borne out by witnesses in the very country in 

 which the prophet dwelt. 



" In the middle of April," says a traveller J in the Holy 

 Land, " while our ship was riding at anchor under Mount 

 Carmel, we saw three nights of these birds, each of which 

 took up more than three hours in passing us, extending itself, 

 at the same time, more than half a mile in breadth." They 

 were then leaving Egypt, and steering towards the north-east 

 of Palestine, where it seems, from the account of another eye- 

 witness, they abound in the month of May. " Keturning 

 from Cana to Nazareth," he observes, " I saw the fields so 

 filled with flocks of Storks, that they appeared quite white 

 with them ; and when they rose and hovered in the air, they 

 seemed like clouds. The respect paid in former times to 

 these birds is still shown ; for the Turks, notwithstanding 

 their recklessness in shedding human blood, have a more than 

 ordinary regard for Storks, looking upon them with an almost 

 reverential affection. 



In the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and indeed throughout 

 the whole of the Ottoman dominions, wherever the bird abides 

 during his Summer visits, it is welcomed. They call him their 

 friend and their brother, the friend and brother exclusively of the 

 Moslem race, entertaining a belief that wherever the influence 

 of their religion prevailed, he would still bear them company, 

 and it might seem that these sagacious birds are well aware 

 of this predilection; for singularly enough, a recent traveller, 



* See p. 61. HEARNE'S Journey in North America. 



+ Chardin. MACFARLANE'S Constantinople. 



