[ 35 ] 
WHITE STORK. 
Ardea Ciconia. Bin. Syst. i. p. lib. 7. 
La Cicogne Blanche. B ris • Om. v. p. 3 65. 
Buff. Ois. yii . p. 25 3. 
White Stork. Lath . 5/w. iii. p. 4/. 
In size it occupies tlie intermediate space between tlie Crane and the 
Heron. It inhabits most parts of Europe, except England, where it has 
never been seen except m four instances, and then supposed to be driven by 
tempestuous weather. Avoiding the extremes of heat and cold, it is not 
met with between the tropics. It appears in Sweden in April, retires in 
August, is not seen farther north than Scania, or in Russia, beyond fifty 
decrees north, nor to the east of Moscow. 
In Lorrain, Alsace, and in Holland, these birds are in a manner half 
domestic, and are so far familiarized to the society of man, as to walk un- 
concerned about the streets, feeding on offal and filth, and clearing the fields 
of serpents and every noxious reptile ; they likewise build on the tops of 
houses, forming their nest of sticks, twigs, and aquatic plants (laying never 
more than four eggs, oftener not more than two, of a dirty yellowish white, 
smaller but longer than those of a goose), on wheels and boxes provided for 
them by the inhabitants ; where they are not only held in great veneration, 
but every attention is paid to their security, that no injury should be done 
them ; and it would be almost as dangerous, in the present age, to kill a 
Stork in Holland, as it was in former times in Thessaly, when such a crime 
was expiable only by the death of tlie offender. 
1 he Stork is of a nuld amiable disposition (from which, as is known to 
the learned leader, it derives its name), particularly attentive to its young, 
piotecting them in the moment of danger, perishing in their defence before 
it will forsake them. 
ery much has been said by the ancients of its moral qualities ; it was 
the emblem of temperance, conjugal fidelity, affection, and filial piety; and 
the law which compelled the maintenance of parents, was enacted in ho* 
noui ol them, and inscribed by their name. 
