AVES— STORK. 



635 



other food. They remove the noxious filth, and clear the fields of serpentg 

 and reptiles. On this account they are protected in Holland, held in high 

 veneration by the Mahometans ; and so greatly were they respected in times 

 of old by the Thessalonians, that to kill one of these birds was a crime 

 expiable only by death. The ancients, indeed, ascribed to it the virtues of 

 temperance, conjugal fidelity, and filial and paternal piety. 



The disposition of this bird is mild, neither shy nor savage ; it is easily 

 tamed, and may be trained to reside in gardens, which it will clear of 

 insects and reptiles. It has a grave air and a mournful visage ; yet when 

 roused by example, it shows a certain degree of gaiety ; for it joins in the 

 frolics of children, by imitating them. Dr Herman tells us, that he saw a 



tame one in a garden, where the children were playing at hide and seek, and 

 that it run its turn when touched, and so well distinguished the child whose 

 turn it was to pursue the rest, as to be perfectly on its guard. Nor do they 

 lightly feel or inadequately revenge an injury. A wild stork, having been 

 beaten by a tame one, has been known, after an interval of four months, to 

 come back with three other storks;, and kill the former victor. 



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

 their autumnal departure from Europe to more favorite climates. They 

 are seldom seen farther north than Sweden ; and though they have scarcely 

 ever been met with in England, they are so common in Holland as to build 

 every where on the tops of the houses, where the inhabitants provide boxes for 

 them to make their nesta in, and are careful that the birds suffer no injury. 



