^ STORKS. SPOONBILLS. 93 



41. The Storks properly so called, Ciconia, have a large 

 beak which is moderately cleft ; their light and broad mandibles, 

 by striking against each other, produce a peculiar clash. Their 

 legs are reticulated and not very muscular. Their movements are 

 slow, and their steps long and measured ; in their powerful and 

 sustained flight, they carry their head stiffly in advance, and 

 their legs, extended behind, serve them for a rudder. 



42. The White Stork, JJrdea ciconia, (Plate 5, fg. 8.) 

 appears in France and Germany in the spring, and passes the 

 winter in Africa. It is a large, white bird, with the primaries of 

 the wings black, and the beak and feet red. They live in pairs, 

 and return every year to lay in the same nest. There is no bird 

 which has received, from different nations, more universal pro- 

 tection than this, which is, in fact, every where useful in ridding 

 the soil of prejudicial animals, without, at the same time, doing 

 the smallest injury. Among the ancients, this veneration was 

 carried to such an extent, that it was made a crime to kill one of 

 these birds ; in Thessaly it was even punishable by death. Like 

 the Ibis, the Stork was an object of worship amongst the 

 Egyptians ; and its instinctive qualities have no doubt con- 

 tributed to increase this respect which is perpetuated among the 

 orientals, and still observed in Switzerland and Holland. It has 

 so much affection for its young that it does not quit them in the 

 greatest danger ; it is recorded in history, that the Stork of Delft, 

 which was uselessly urged to carry away her young, remained 

 and perished with them in the conflagration of that city. The 

 tender attentions which these birds pay to their parents in old 

 age, are not less remarkable, and it is for this reason that the 

 Greeks gave their name to the law which obliges children to 

 furnish aliment to their parents when they are in want. 



43. Some species of Storks have on the middle of the neck an 

 appendage which resembles a large sausage, on account of which 

 they are called, Povched Storks; the feathers from beneath their 

 wings form those light plumes which are called, by the French, 

 Marabous ; one species is found in Senegal, and another in India. 



44. The Spoonbills, Platalea, resemble the Storks in their 

 whole structure ; but their beak, from which they derive their 

 name, is flat, and widened at the end into a round disk like a 

 spatula, (Plate 5,Jig. 9.) This conformation permits them to 



41. WJiat are the characters of Storks properly so called? 



42. What is the White Stork ? What are its habits? For what is rf 

 remarkable? 



43. What are Pouched Storks? 



44. What are the characters of the Spoonbill*? 



