CHAPTER XV 

 STORKS AND CRANES 



" To give power, we must have plumes that can strike as with 

 the flat of a sword-blade." 



EVERYONE who has been to parts of Holland, 

 Sweden, and Germany, in the spring or summer 

 time, cannot fail to notice the white storks ; so 

 conspicuous in the choice of their building sites, on 

 the top of roofs, chimneys, and, in some instances, 

 poles, on which have been placed cart-wheels or plat- 

 forms, as foundations for their big nests of sticks. 



In the end of March or the commencement of April 

 the storks return from their winter quarters in Egypt, 



India, &c., and every one knows how fortunate the 



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