182 ' THE MEMOEABLE. 



two white-winged beings hovering in the air, who presently- 

 descended and alighted close to his feet. They were 

 storks ! attracted, doubtless, to the moist and rank herb- 

 age by the expectation of a plentiful repast on insects and 

 slugs which the dews had drawn abroad. To have found 

 a living man, where they had been accustomed to find 

 only the dead, seemed to disturb them, however ; for they 

 presently spread their ample wings, and mounted to the 

 spire, where, perched, they gave utterance to their wild 

 and singularly plaintive cries, which added greatly to those 

 impressions of loneliness and seclusion that the incident 

 had already inspired. No wonder that the naturalist 

 could never afterwards behold a stork without having 

 presented to his imagination, in vivid force, that startling 

 rencontre in the graveyard of Delft.* 



Very few persons capable of appreciating the interest 

 of the spectacle have ever beheld the gorgeous bird of 

 paradise in his remote equatorial forests. The land in 

 which it dwells is still a terra incognita to science. 

 Nearly all the world has been laid open to the perseve- 

 rance of modern explorers ; but the sullen ferocity of the 

 savages of New Guinea, and their hostility to strangers, 

 keep us to this day in ignorance of the largest island of 

 the world. A few glances at the coast, obtained by ad- 

 venturous travellers, who, well armed, have penetrated a 

 mile or two from the sea, have only served to whet curio- 

 sity, and to stimulate desire for an acquaintance with the 

 productions in which it appears so ricli, 



* Hamilton's Memoirs of Wilson, p. 33. 



