STOEKS. 
TAMING STORKS. 
Having been asked my opinion regarding the habits 
and nature of the common white stork (Giconia alba), and 
its adaptability to be kept as a garden pet, I have thought 
it would answer most of the inquiries if I were to write a 
few notes upon the subject. In the first place, in order to 
keep a pair or more of these birds, the garden must be 
one of large size, and all choice and small or delicate 
flower-beds must be so protected that the storks cannot 
walk upon the flowers and spoil them, not only by crush- 
ing, but by soiling them with whitewashy excreta, so 
freely given off by these birds. With reference to their 
tameness, I know of no bird that so soon becomes tame ; 
the fact is, they are for the most part tame bred, for in 
Holland and many other places the arrival in spring of 
the storks after their winter migration is a most welcome 
and cheering time. The birds alight on the house-tops, 
and visit the streets and market-places about the towns 
and country houses, and no one attempts or dares to molest 
or injure them. They are so perfectly at home and so kindly 
received that they at once repair their old nests, which are 
generally on the highest part of the houses or other build- 
ings, the nests being composed of sticks and all sorts of 
dry rubbish, on which they lay three or four white eggs. 
In about a month they hatch and the young are reared, 
the old birds feeding them upon rats, mice, frogs, fish, 
young water-fowl, reptiles, aquatic insects, worms, and any 
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