350 ANTIQUE NOTIONS. [CHAP. vxn. 



have all disappeared, arid no Stork is seen afterwards 

 in the district, until they, after half a year's interval, 

 return more gradually to their homes from their dis- 

 tant wanderings. The natives say that they hold a 

 council before they set out from the country. Many 

 such meeting-places for Storks are found in Scania, 

 near the woods which they inhabit. In the wood just 

 mentioned they build close to each other in the oak- 

 trees, and agree well together; but in other places 

 they usually will not allow another bird in their vicinity 

 without violent battle arising when they come near 

 each other's nests. 



" The Storks which I saw in Bengal had the beak and 

 legs red as with us ; but it occurred to me that the black 

 between the beak and the eye in the males was somewhat 

 broader." 



Storks were of old believed, on their retirement from 

 Europe, to lie torpid at the bottom of ponds, with their 

 long bill not tucked under the wing, but inserted in a 

 ludicrous and hardly describable position. Even now 

 their visits and departures are matters of great interest, 

 at which no one can wonder who has seen these wide- 

 winged birds and their brood wheeling around a Ger- 

 man farm-house. It is quite like the bidding farewell 

 to, or the welcoming of old friends. 



In autumn, alas ! the Storks are gone ; no more to 

 be seen standing about, or flapping to and fro, or sailing 

 round about. Yesterday they were here ; now they 

 have departed without notice ; and we must prepare for 

 long bitter nights, and days of sad privation, with scanty 

 firing, and but poor food. We hard-working Bauer 

 folk must eat our black rye-bread, munch our sauer- 

 kraut, and sup our watery soup, with hardly a sight of 



