ORDER GRALL/E. 495 



measured. Like the other grallje, they carry the foot for- 

 ward simultaneously with the leg, and this sort of locomotion 

 is owing to a peculiar system of articulation. To the same 

 mechanism the storks are indebted for the faculty of sleeping 

 upon one leg, holding the other bent, and often even sus- 

 pended rectangularly. In their flight, which is powerful and 

 sustained, they carry their head stiff in front, and their feet, 

 stretched backwards, answer the purposes of a helm. 

 Marshes, meadows, and shores are their habitual sojourn, and 

 fishes, reptiles, small mammifera, previously triturated and 

 macerated, worms, and insects, constitute their ordinary food. 

 Of all birds which frequent the sea-shore and the banks of 

 rivers, the storks are the best known, and the White Stork 

 (A. Ciconia) is more celebrated than any other, and 

 merits this distinction by its moral qualities, and the services 

 which it renders to mankind. Its manners and habits pre- 

 sent a perfect contrast with those of the black stork, which 

 is wild and savage, seeking out deserts and morasses remote 

 from every habitation, concealing its nest in the depths of the 

 forest, and delighting in the solitude of naked rocks and 

 cloud-capped mountains. The white stork, on the contrary, 

 appears to have been born the friend of man ; it partakes his 

 dwelling, fixes its abode upon his house, nestling on roofs and 

 chimnies, seeks its food on the banks of the most frequented 

 rivers, hunts in our fields, and in our very gardens, and, un- 

 terrified by the tumult of towns and cities, establishes itself 

 on their towers and lofty buildings, where it is universally 

 respected and universally welcome. In Holland, it is pecu- 

 liarly protected, and it merits this protection by clearing the 

 marshes and humid valleys of that country of lizards, ser- 

 pents, frogs, toads, and other reptiles. But the Hollanders 

 are not the only people who respect the storks ; the Vaudois, 

 impelled by the same motive, namely, the great utility of these 

 birds, fear to make any attempt on their lives, and hold them 

 in veneration. The Arabs regard the storks as a guarantee 



