CHAP. vui.J DIET. 345 



Guist in Norfolk, to whom mice were administered, 

 by opening his bill, and placing them alive on the lower 

 mandible, when they would run down the open throat 

 before them, thinking it a most convenient retreat. The 

 other day, I asked our rat-catcher to spare me a three- 

 quarter grown animal that his dogs had just killed, as 

 Mr. Stork had had no breakfast that morning. The 

 man stared and complied, and opened his eyes still 

 wider, when the beast which I tossed Stork- wards by 

 the tail, was caught in the air, and soon seen travelling 

 down the swelling gullet of the bird. As the perform- 

 ance gave so much satisfaction, we ventured to request 

 in return that the destroyer of rats would now and 

 then send Storkie a present of a bunch of game of his 

 " small deer." Indeed, we have never had so few rats 

 and mice on the premises as since a Stork has been 

 kept there. This diet is most healthful for the bird, 

 as the pellets of fur, &c., which it throws up cleanse 

 the stomach. It must, however, be confessed that 

 chickens and ducklings would soon share the same fate 

 as rats and mice ; and that, so long as they are under 

 age, he must be kept out of their way, or they out of 

 his, if the consumption of poultry in our establishment 

 is not to go on at quite an extravagant rate. It may be 

 supposed that, on the Continent, the free use of his wings, 

 and the power to search after less valuable prey, causes 

 him to refrain from similar depredations amongst the 

 young broods there ; otherwise he would be a much less 

 welcome guest at the farm-houses where he is now so 

 hospitably received. But Temminck, in his " Manuel," 

 p. 561, includes in the " nourriture " of the Stork, 

 young Ducks and Partridges : what the Dutch game 

 preservers think of this, he does not state. We have 



