498 CLASS AVES. 



nest, and to make their first essays of flight, the mother will 

 carry them on her wings, defending them in all dangers ; and 

 she has been known, when unable to save them, to prefer perish- 

 ing with them, to abandoning them. An attachment of this 

 kind once occasioned the death of a stork, at Delft, in the 

 burning of that city. Having made many useless endeavours 

 to carry off" her young, she remained, and perished with them 

 in the flames. This maternal virtue is by no means uncom- 

 mon in many other birds ; but what peculiarly characterizes 

 this species, and undoubtedly exalts it above others, is, the 

 filial aifection of the young for their parents. The young 

 storks lavish the most tender cares on their parents, 

 when the latter are old and feeble, bringing them food when 

 they are in a languishing state, from age or malady. This 

 touching instinct, thus implanted by nature in the heart of 

 brute animals, has not escaped the observing eye of the 

 ancients. A law among the Greeks, obliging children to sup- 

 port their parents, even received its name from a reference to 

 these birds. The respect universally paid to them in ancient 

 times, amounting with the Egyptians even to worship, and 

 in modern times extending at least to their comfort and pro- 

 tection, has arisen altogether from the opinion entertained of 

 their moral qualities and amiable disposition. Among the 

 Romans, the appearance of a stork in their auguries signified 

 union and concord. Its departure, in any calamity, was 

 deemed a most fearful and fatal presage. This prejudice 

 was so rooted, that Attila continued the siege of Aquileia, 

 which he was about to raise, because he had beheld some 

 storks flying from the city, and bringing away their young 

 along with them. In the language of hieroglyphics, the 

 stork was the symbol of piety and beneficence, virtues which 

 are expressed by its name in the Hebrew tongue, m^Qn. It 

 is also an emblem on the medals of such Roman princes as 

 merited the appellative of plus. 



By the assistance of its powerful and continuous flight, the 



