THE STORK. 
310 
of another, announcing their joy at the departure of Winter. 
The expression, “ the Stork in the Heaven,” is more applicable 
than at first appears, for even when out of sight, its pathway 
may he traced by the loud and piercing cries, peculiar to those 
of the New as well as of the Old worlds In America, f too, 
its migrations are equally regular, passing its immense 
periodical journeys at such a prodigious height as to he 
seldom observed. It is satisfactory thus to strengthen the 
authority of a Scriptural passage from so distant a source, 
though amply borne out by witnesses in the very country in 
which the prophet dwelt. 
“ In the middle of April,” says a traveller J in the Holy 
Land, “ while our ship was riding at anchor under Mount 
Carmel, we saw three flights of these birds, each of which 
took up more than three hours in passing us, extending itself, 
at the same time, more than half a mile in breadth.” They 
were then leaving Egypt, and steering towards the north-east 
of Palestine, where it seems, from the account of another eye- 
witness, they abound in the month of May. “ Returning 
from Cana to Nazareth,” he observes, “ I saw the fields so 
filled with flocks of Storks, that they appeared quite white 
with them ; and when they rose and hovered in the air, they 
seemed like clouds. The respect paid in former times to 
these birds is still shown ; for the Turks, notwithstanding 
their recklessness in shedding human blood, have a more than 
ordinary regard for Storks, looking upon them with an almost 
reverential affection. 
In the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and indeed throughout 
the whole of the Ottoman dominions, wherever the bird abides 
during his Summer visits, it is welcomed. They call him their 
friend and their brother, the friend and brother exclusively of the 
Moslem race, entertaining a belief that wherever the influence 
of their religion prevailed, he would still bear them company, 
and it might seem that these sagacious birds are well aware 
of this predilection; for singularly enough, a recent traveller, § 
* See p. 61 . Hearne’s Journey in North America . 
+ Chardin. Macfarlane’s Constantinople. 
