THE STORK. 135 



" In the middle of April," says a traveller* in the 

 Holy Land, " while our ship was riding at anchor un- 

 der Mount Carmel, we saw three flights of these birds, 

 each of which took up more than three hours in pass- 

 ing us, extending itself, at the same time, more than 

 half a mile in breadth." They were then leaving 

 Egypt, and steering for Palestine, towards the north- 

 east, where it seerns, from the account of another 

 eye-witness, they abound in the month of May. 

 " Returning from Ciina to Nazareth," he observes, " I 

 saw the fields so filled with flocks of Storks, that 

 they appeared quite white with them ; and when 

 they rose and hovered in the air, they seemed like 

 clouds. The respect paid in former times to these 

 birds is still shown ; for the Turks, notwithstanding 

 their recklessness in shedding human blood, have a 

 more than ordinary regard for Storks, looking upon 

 them with an almost reverential affection." 



In the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and indeed 

 throughout the whole of the Ottoman dominions, 

 wherever the bird abides during his Summer visits, 

 it is welcomed. They call him their friend and their 

 brother, the friend and brother exclusively of the 

 Moslem race, entertaining a belief that wherever 

 the influence of their religion prevailed, he would 

 still bear them company; and it might seem that 

 these sagacious birds arc well aware of this predi- 

 lection: for singularly enough, a recent traveller t, 

 who met with them in incredible numbers in Asia 

 Minor, observed, that although they built on the 

 mosques, minarets, and Turkish houses, their nests 



* Chardin. 



-j- Macfarlane's Constantinople. . 



