THE STORK 139 



on fire by a bursting shell. Near the farm stood an old 

 dry tree, on which a pair of Storks had built. The mother 

 bird was on the nest at the time. The noise of the guns 

 scared her, but they could not scare her from her precious 

 charge. 



But presently, fanned by the wind, a sheet of flame from 

 the burning buildings swept round the tree. Then she 

 sprang up and soared high in air. But she would not 

 leave the nest. Down she swooped through the smoke, 

 wondering how she might save her ofiBpring. The heat 

 again drove her away, and again she soared into the sky. 

 But her mother-love was greater than her fear : and it 

 drew her back. Once more she came down, and this time 

 the smoke and flames overpowered her, and she fell on to 

 the already crackling heap of sticks, blinded, scorched and 

 dead. 



Such stories are not rare. No wonder, then, that the 

 people of the towns which are visited by Storks, in their 

 migrations, respect them and treat them hospitably. 



Some put boxes on the roof to tempt them to build 

 there. Better still, in the Stork's own opinion, is the old 

 device of fixing a cart-wheel on the top of a stout pole, and 

 rearing it on some high place, properly supported and made 

 fast. The wheel makes a capital platform, on which the 

 great collection of twigs and sticks can be built up. Every 

 spring sees the pile grow higher. 



Not only in the north of Europe, but also in the south- 

 east, the Stork is well treated. I do not know whether 

 there was ever any truth in the old belief that in Mahometan 

 countries this bird always preferred to build on a Moslem 

 housetop, avoiding that of a Christian. But we are told 

 that when after long years of Turkish misrule the Greeks 

 gained their independence, they destroyed numbers of 



