140 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



Storks' nests throughout the country, because, said they, 

 "the Stork is a Turkish bird."^ 



It is good to hear that the old respect for the Stork 

 still prevails in so many countries where Moslems and 

 Christians live side by side, as in the Balkan States. 



Says the writer of a book published in 1908, a travelling 

 sportsman and naturalist : " It is a most difficult thing to 

 take Storks' eggs. They are exceedingly common, and I 

 have seen hundreds of their nests in Holland, Denmark, 

 Spain, Hungary, Roumania, Albania, and Montenegro. 

 But as they are almost invariably on or near houses, the 

 owners of which regard them with much affection or 

 superstitious regard, it is nearly always impossible to get 

 at the eggs. 



" In Spain, it is true, I do not think the people pay 

 much regard to them, merely considering them useful in 

 eating locusts, mice, and even rats and snakes. But in 

 Holland and Denmark it would be unsafe to disturb them, 

 and even more dangerous in Mahometan countries, where 

 the people look upon them with peculiar reverence." 



What a happy contrast is this to the wanton shooting 

 of every rare bird, the practice which seems usual in this 

 country ! No wonder the White Stork never comes in his 

 thousands to England. Now and again a straggler from 

 the great migrating armies arrives on our shores, but only a 

 day or two seems to elapse before he is seen and "bagged." 



A kindlier reception awaits him in North Africa. In 

 Morocco, we are told by Colonel Irby, "almost every 

 Moorish hovel has its Stork's nest on the top, a pile of 



^ That old dislike must have died out long ago. Indeed, my first sight of a 

 Stork, other than in a Zoo enclosure, happened to be in one of the streets of 

 Athens, the Greek capital, where it was walking about as if the whole place 

 belonged to it. 



