STOEKS. 



TAMING STOEKS. 



Having been asked my opinion regarding the habits 

 and nature of the common white stork (Ciconia alba), and 

 its adaptability to be kept as a garden pet, I have thought 

 it would answer most of the inquiries if I were to write a 

 few notes upon the subject. In the first place, in order to 

 keep a pair or more of these birds, the garden must be 

 one of large size, and all choice and small or delicate 

 flower-beds must be so protected that the storks cannot 

 walk upon the flowers and spoil them, not only by crush- 

 ing, but by soiling them with whitewashy excreta, so 

 freely given off by these birds. With reference to their 

 tameness, I know of no bird that so soon becomes tame ; 

 the fact is, they are for the most part tame bred, for in 

 Holland and many other places the arrival in spring of 

 the storks after their winter migration is a most welcome 

 and cheering time. The birds alight on the house-tops, 

 and visit the streets and market-places about the towns 

 and country houses, and no one attempts or dares to molest 

 or injure them. They are so perfectly at home and so kindly 

 received that they at once repair their old nests, which are 

 generally on the highest part of the houses or other build- 

 ings, the nests being composed of sticks and all sorts of 

 dry rubbish, on which they lay three or four white eggs. 

 In about a month they hatch and the young are reared, 

 the old birds feeding them upon rats, mice, frogs, fish, 

 young water- fowl, reptiles, aquatic insects, worms, and any 



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