HAP.VIII.] MODES OF PINIONING. 341 



and forbearance, and even, if possible, through the 

 same beautifying medium of retiring distance, in our 

 mournful recollections, as we would friends departed, 

 really denizens of another world ? 



The captive Stork does exhibit some traces of these 

 engaging traits, but they are best seen where a pair is 

 kept. Solitary individuals, though they do not seem to 

 pine, still require a companion to draw out the full 

 manifestation of their habits. My own pair, so long as 

 I had the two, afforded much more interesting amuse- 

 ment than does the sole surviving bird ; they were pur- 

 chased in Great Yarmouth, of a person who several 

 times a year makes trading trips to Holland, and were 

 brought from Dort, not far from Rotterdam. It is 

 quite a modern innovation that Storks are permitted to 

 be sold, but now the young are regularly exposed for 

 sale ; they may be had in London at about %L, some- 

 times less, the pair. Soon after the purchase of mine, 

 I started early one morning to bring them to their 

 future home : they were placed in a large wicker cage on 

 the top of a railway carriage, to the great astonishment 

 of the porters, who wondered what new sort of poultry 

 those long-legged creatures could be. I had inquired 

 of the vendor if they were pinioned, who said that they 

 were; and they were accordingly turned loose, on ar- 

 riving at their journey's end, without further examina- 

 tion. But by " pinioning " I meant amputation of one 

 or more joints of the wing; he understood the Dutch 

 fashion of tying the wings together with twine at the 

 upper arm, close to the back, nearly as we serve 

 criminals before hanging them. This twine, being hid- 

 den by the feathers, was not perceived till the birds had 

 grown considerably, when an unaccountable bleeding 



