HERON. 49 



its nest; tending towards the south in autumn, to pass the winter in 

 Egypt.* In Lorraine, Alsace, and particularly in Holland, they 

 are every where seen on the tops of houses, and the good-natured 

 inhabitants generally provide boxes for them to make their nests 

 in ; this they not only do, but are especially careful that the birds 

 suffer no injury, resenting it as done to themselves : are singularly 

 favoured at the Hague, and Amsterdam, where they are seen stalking 

 in the markets, perfectly tame, picking up offal, and garbage, about 

 the fish stalls; and have sheltered places appropriated to their use. 

 As to England, it must be called a rare bird, as but few instances 

 have occurred, of its being found here at large. 



Willughby mentions one being shot in Norfolk ; and Albin a 

 second in Middlesex : in 1784, one was found dead on the shore, at 

 Sandwich Bay; and in the winter of 1785, another, shot at South- 

 fleet, in Kent. In the beginning of the winter 1789, a farmer, of 

 Downton, near Salisbury, killed a Stork ; and in May 1800, one 

 was shot near Sandwich, by Mr. Boys. We have heard of some 

 other instances, but not having put them on paper, can say no 

 further. In the colder parts of France, they are in much less plenty 

 than towards the south ; frequent in Spain ; and in no place, more 

 so than Seville ;f common at Aleppo, and said to have two broods 

 in a year — the first towards the north ; the second in the warmer 



* At Alexandria, and other parts of Egypt, as also throughout Turkey, they are in the 

 highest degree esteemed ; and if a Christian should kill one, he would run much hazard of 

 his life ; and the house on which a nest is placed, is supposed to receive great blessings, &c. 

 Hasselq. Voy. p. 32. This was also the sentiment of the Ancients ; as the same punishment, 

 was inflicted on any one who killed a Stork, as if he had killed a man ; and the love of these 

 birds is said to have arisen, from their having freed Thessaly from serpents. — Pliny N. Hist. 

 1. 10. ch. 23. Anach. iii. 316. — I find the Stork among Mr. Bruce's Abyssinian drawings. 



•f They are here very numerous in the winter season ; almost every tower in the city is 

 peopled with them, and they return annually to the same nests. They destroy all the vermin 

 on the tops of the houses, and pick up a great number of snakes; so that they are welcome 

 guests to the inhabitants, and looked upon with particular veneration. — Dillon's Trav. 308. 

 Faber but once, and Aldrovandus never, saw them in Italy; yet Virgil speaks of their 

 being there as not uncommon : 



' cum vere rubenti, 



Candida venit avis longis invisa Colubris. Georg. lib. II. 320. 



TOL. IX. H 



