THE STORK. 69 



this be the case or not, it is certainly protected by public 

 opinion. 



There are, indeed, few towns on the continent, at least where 

 the situation is low and marshy, that have not the stork as an 

 inmate, and every where it is a favourite of the people. There 

 is certainly something amiable in prejudices which inspire the 

 breast with sentiments of humanity. 



The immense variety of kinds and species of this numerous 

 race, precludes the possibility of bringing 1 them forward to dis- 

 tinct inspections, within the limits of a work like this. We might, 

 indeed, describe the curlew, the snipe, the ruff, the various 

 species of plover, and innumerable others, well known to sports- 

 men, as well as to naturalists, most of them affording excellent 

 food, and all of them curious in their conformation, all perfectly 

 adapted to their destination, and proclaiming the power, the 

 wisdom, and the goodness of the God of Nature. 



As it is not, however, our intention to burden the memory 

 with a mere nomenclature of Nature's works, but rather to 

 amuse and inform the mind, by directing the attention to some 

 of the most striking objects of the creation, we shall proceed to 

 the second class, into which we have, according to general cus- 

 tom, divided the prodigious variety of aquatic birds which fre- 

 quent the shores of the ocean, and those of rivers and lakes, or 

 enliven the dreary solitude of bogs and morasses. 



CHAPTER X. 



"From man retirM, amid the lonely marsh, 

 Flamingoes build and tend their curious nests." 



We shall now select for entertainment and instruction, the 

 most remarkable of those water-fowl, which are commonly de- 

 nominated the goose kind, and of which the distinguishing char- 

 acteristic is a membranous web, connecting the toes, which 

 greatly facilitates their swimming. Here we cannot but observe 

 the curious adaptation of their mechanism to the mode of life 

 for which they are designed. Their toes, thus joined, serve them 

 as oars ; and their legs, being short, are not less judiciously con- 

 structed for striking with facility in the water, and assisting their 

 progress in that element, for which they Avould be wholly unfit, 

 were they as long as those of most of the kind last described. 

 It is impossible to examine the conformation of these two kinds 

 of aquatic fowl, of which one is destined to wade, and the other 

 to swim, without discovering unequivocal proofs of an all-wise 

 design: the same may be observed of their plumage which is 

 8 



