Storks ^ Cranes 229 



story about a §tork that was marked and also " made 

 in Germany," although I did not hear the anecdote 

 first hand. 



At any rate, it may be said, that a German put a 

 ring upon a stork's leg, marking on the ring the place 

 where it was hatched, and the bird was allowed to fly. 



Away he went at the migrating season, and in the 

 following spring returned again. 



How they managed to catch him, I don't know ; 

 he may have been very tame and have walked into an 

 outhouse, or anything of that kind. 



On looking at the ring, or it may have been a 

 second one, these additional words had been engraved : 

 " Friends in Bombay greet friends in Berlin " (sup- 

 posing Berlin to have been the place where the bird 

 was originally marked). 



This story was, so I understood, told to Mr. Hart 

 by a German who was visiting his museum. 



Having suffered from the way in which my tame 

 storks have been shot, which I have time after time 

 allowed to have their full liberty, I feel all the more 

 keenly the foolish and wanton destruction of these 

 birds, and other rare ones. 



It is always interesting to try experiments with 

 birds by allowing them in semi-captivity their full 

 liberty ; and this I have done with white storks for 

 several years. Purchasing them as nestlings, or almost 

 so, in Leadenhall Market, generally in the beginning 

 of June, when they are too young to fly ; I take care to 

 ask beforehand that their flight feathers shall not be 

 clipped. Sometimes they are such babies, that for 



