AVES—STORK. 635 
other food. They remove the noxious filth, and clear the fields of serpents 
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 2asily 
tamed, and may be trained to reside in gardens, which it will clear of 
insects and reptiles. It has a grave air anda 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 
same 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 nests in, and are careful that the birds suffer no injury 
