THE STORK. 109 



Remarkable affection Sagacity. 



The ancients ascribed many moral virtues to 

 the stork ; as temperance, conjugal fidelity, and 

 filial and paternal piety: its manners are such as 

 were likely to attract peculiar attention from 

 them. It bestows much time and care on the 

 education of its young, and does not leave them 

 till they have strength sufficient for defence and 

 support. When they begin to flutter out of the 

 nest, the mother bears them on her wings ; she 

 protects them from danger, and will sometimes 

 perish rather than forsake them. A celebrated 

 story is current in Holland : that when the city 

 of Delft was on fire, a female stork in vain at- 

 tempted several times to carry off her young 

 ones ; and finding that she was unable to effect 

 their escape, remained herself in order to share 

 their fate. This extraordinary circumstance fur- 

 nished Mr. Hayley with the subject of that bal- 

 lad, from which the motto to the present chapter 

 is extracted. 



In " Letters on Italy" is the following anecdote 

 which affords a singular instance of sagacity ia 

 this bird. A wild stork was brought by a farmer, 

 in the neighbourhood of Hamburgh, into his 

 poultry-yard, to be the companion of a tame one 

 he had long kept there; but the tame stork dis- 

 liking a rival, fell upon the poor stranger, and 

 beat him so unmercifully, that he was compelled 

 to take wing, and with some difficulty escaped. 

 About four months afterwards, however, he re- 

 turned to the poultry-yard, recovered of his 



