BRITISH BIRDS. 107 



had got its leg entangled and broken in a chink of the ruin, where it had 

 perished miserably." Again (p. 247), "There is a well-authenticated account 

 of the devotion of a Stork, w4iich at the burning of the town of Delft, after 

 repeated and unsuccessful attempts to carry off her young, chose rather to 

 remain and perish with them. Well might the Romans call it pia avis !" 



This latter bird was an unfortunate instance of the fallacy of the popular 

 notion of immunity from fire ascribed to the species ; neither had it made as 

 felicitous a choice as Juvenal's Stork, which built its nest on the Temple of 

 Concord at Rome (Sat. i. 116). 



In the ' History of Sign-boards,' by Jacob Larwood and John Camden 

 Hotten, p. 203 (Chatto and Windus), concerning the curious sign of the 

 Storks, of which the vignette below is a copy, by permission, Coryatt thus 

 speaks : — " There (at Fontainebleau) I saw two or three birds that I never 

 did before ; even Storckes. It is written of them that when the old one is 

 become so old that it is not able to helpe itselfe, the young purveyeth foode 

 for it, and some time carryeth it about on his backe ; and if it is so destitute 

 of meate, that it knoweth not where to get any sustenance, it casteth out that 

 which it hath eaten the day before, to the end to feede his damme. This 

 bird is called in Greeke ireXapyos, whence cometh the Greeke word avTi-rreXapyelv, 

 which signifieth to imitate the Stork in cherishing our parents." 



This fabled virtue of the Stork suggested the sign to many continental 

 booksellers and printers. The Two Storks w^as the sign of Martin Nutius 

 of Antwerp, 1550, and his son, Philip Nutius. Their colophons all represent 

 a young Stork feeding an old one, sometimes carrying him on his back, with 

 the motto, " Pietas Jiomini tutissima." 



' Two Storks.' (Antwerp, 1639.) „ 



