306 THE WHITE STORK. 



of insects and reptiles. It has a grave air, and a mournful visage 

 yet, when roused by example, it exhibits a certain degree of gaiety; 

 for it joins in the frolics of children, hopping about and playing with 

 them : " In a garden (says Dr. Hermann) where the children were 

 playing at hide-and-seek, I saw a tame Stork join the party; run its 

 turn when touched; and distinguish the child whose turn it was to 

 pursue the rest, so well, as, along with the others, to be on its guard." 



To the Stork the ancients ascribed many of the moral virtues ; at 

 temperance, conjugal fidelity, and filial and paternal piety. The 

 manners of this bird are sucn as were likely to attract peculiar atten- 

 tion. It bestows much time and care on the education of its offspring, 

 and does not leave them till they have strength sufficient for their 

 own support and defence. When they begin to flutter out of the 

 nest, the mother bears them on her wings ; she protects them from 

 danger, and will some times perish rather than forsake them. A 

 celebrated story is current in Holland, that, when the city of Delft 

 was on fire, a female Stork in vain attempted several times to carry 

 off her young ones; and, finding she was unable to effect their escape, 

 suffered, herself to be burned with them. 



The following anecdote affords a singular instance of sagacity in 

 this bird: "A wild Stork was brought by a farmer, who resided 

 near Hamburgh, into his poultry-yard, to be the companion of a tamo 

 one that he had long kept there; but the tame Stork, disliking a 

 rival, fell upon the poor stranger, and beat him so unmercifully that 

 he was compelled to take wing, and with some difficulty escaped. 

 About four months afterwards, however, he returned to the poultry- 

 yard, recovered of his wounds, and attended by three other Storks 

 who no sooner alighted than they all together fell upon the tame 

 Stork and killed him." 



Storks are birds of passage, and observe great exactness in the 

 time of their autumnal departure from Europe to more favorite cli- 

 mates. They pass a second summer in i]gypt and the marshes of 

 Barbary. In the former country they pair; again lay, ami .educate 

 a second brood. Before each of their migrations, they rendezvous 

 in amazing numbers. They are for a while much in motion among 

 themselves; and after making several short excursions, as if to try 

 their wings, they suddenly take flight with great silence. 



These birds are seldom seen further north than Sweden; and, 

 though they have scarcely ever been found in England, they are 

 so common in Holland as to build on the tops of the houses, where 

 even the inhabitants provide boxes for them to make their nests in. 

 Storks are also common at Aleppo; and are found in great numbers at 

 Seville, in Spain. At Bagdad, hundreds of their nests are seen about 

 Jie houses, walls, and trees; and at Persepolis, in Persia, the remaina 

 of the pillars serve them for nesting places, "every pillar having a 

 nest upon it." 



During their migrations Storks are observed in vast flocks. Dr. 

 Shaw saw three flights of them leaving Egypt, and passing over Mount 

 Curtnel, each half a mile in width: arid he says they were three hours 

 in passing over. 



