240 
NATURAL HISTORY 
This bird is an inhabitant of Bengal and Calcutta, and 
is sometimes found on the coast of Guinea. It arrives 
in the internal parts of Bengal before the period of the, 
rains, and retires as soon as the dry season commences. 
Its aspect is filthy and disgusting, yet it is one of the 
most useful birds of these countries, in clearing them of 
snakes and noxious reptiles and insects. It seems to 
finish the work begun by the jackall and vulture: they 
clearing away the flesh of animals, and these birds re- 
moving the bones by swallowing them entire. They 
sometimes feed on fish: and one of them will generally 
devour as much as would serve four men. 
Gigantic cranes are found in companies; and when 
seen at a distance, near the mouths of rivers, coming to- 
wards an observer (which they do with their wings ex- 
tended), it is said that they may easily be mistaken for 
canoes on the surface of a smooth sea: and when on the 
sand banks, for men and women picking up shell fish on 
the beach. 
Stork. ( Ciconia . Ray. PL 40.) Of this bird we shall 
confine ourselves to the most remarkable species, which 
is the white stork, the length of which is about three 
feet. The hill is nearly eight inches long, and of a fine 
red colour. The plumage is wholly white, except the 
orbits of the eyes, which are bare and blackish: some 
of the feathers on the side of the back and on the wings 
are black. The skin, the legs, and the bare parts of the 
thighs, are red. 
The white stork is semi-domestic; haunting towns and 
cities, and in many places stalking unconcernedly about 
the streets, in search of offal and other food. They re- 
move the noxious filth, and clear the fields of serpents 
and reptiles. On this account they are protected in Hol- 
land, and held in high veneration by the Mahometans; 
and so greatly were they respected in times of old by 
the Thessalonians, that to kill one of these birds was a 
crime expiable only by death. 
The disposition of this bird is mild, neither shy nor 
savage: it is easily tamed, and may be trained to reside 
in gardens, which it will clear of insects and reptiles. 
