322 
A FAMILIAR FRIEND. 
at his little failings. And, as we 
have said, he is almost everywhere 
a welcome visitant, — everywhere 
the services he renders are fully 
acknowledged. In certain countries 
Iiis arrival is the occasion of domes- 
tic rejoicings. Nobody forgets that, 
according to a popular saying, the 
bird consecrated by the ancients to 
the goddess Juno is a pledge of 
iiappiness, an augury of good for- 
tune, to the roof-tree where he estab- 
lishes his lares; and, to celebrate 
his return, the countryman kills the 
fatted calf or the finest sheep in the 
fold, and the entrails being cast out 
into the garden or the farmyard, the 
bird shares in the general festivity. 
The Egyptians, than whom the 
world has never seen a people more 
addicted to polytheism, placed him 
among the ranks of their benefi- 
cent deities. With the Romans he 
was the emblem of filial piety. 
Pliny asserts that he had fre- 
quently seen young storks supply- 
ing food to, and lavishing the ten- 
derest cares upon, those of their race 
whom age and infinnities prevented 
from attending to their own needs. 
The so - called whale - headed 
stork, or Balceniceps Bex, belongs 
to the boat-bill family. He is found 
MAHABOUT STORKS. . ,i i I'll- il 
in the marshes which he upon the 
White Nile and some of its aftluents, and more particularly in the 
