176 ardeid^;. 



coast. " It is," as Mr. Selby has observed, ' ' a remarkable instance 

 of the laws which direct the migrations of birds, and confine them 

 within certain limits." . In that country, where storks are such 

 general favourites, and meet with the utmost protection, our 

 soldiers — as I have heard from an artillery-man who was with the 

 British army in reducing the frontier towns after 'the battle of 

 Waterloo — got into great disgrace with the people by wantonly 

 shooting their favourite birds. These may indeed be occasionally 

 seen walking the streets with as much confidence as any burgo- 

 master. 



As the eagle is mentally associated with the most sublime scenes 

 in nature, so, to the traveller at least, is the stork with the ruins 

 of man's noblest works. Amid the desolation of Ms fallen cities 

 throughout the fairer parts of Europe and the classic portion of 

 Asia, we are sure to meet with them surmounting his temples, his 

 theatres, or baths. But of all the appropriate localities in which 

 the stork has met my eye, none — considering the filial reputation 

 of the bird — struck me to be so peculiarly happy as the column 

 dedicated to Julia Alpinula at Avenches ; its summit being chosen 

 by a pair for their nest in the summer of 1826. The allusion of 

 Byron to this column, in the 3rd Canto of Childe Harold, will be 

 remembered — 



" By a lone wall a lonelier column rears 

 A grey and grief- worn aspect of old days ; 

 "Tis the last remnant of the wreck of years ; 

 And looks as with the wild-bcwilder'd gaze 

 Of one to stone converted by amaze, 

 Yet still with consciousness ; and there it stands 

 Making a marvel that it not decays, 

 When the coeval pride of human hands 

 Levell'd Aventicum,* hath strewed her subject lands. 



And there — oh ! sweet and sacred be the name ! — 

 Julia — the daughter, the devoted — gave 

 Her youth to Heaven ; her heart, beneath a claim 

 Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. 



* Aventicum, near Morat, was the Roman capital of Helvetia, where Avenches 

 now stands. 



