134 
THE STORK. 
“ In the middle of April,” says a traveller* in the 
Holy Land, “ while our ship was riding at anchor un- 
der Mount Carmel, we saw three flights of these birds, 
each of which took up more than three hours in pass- 
ing us, extending itself, at the same time, more than 
half a mile in breadth.” They were then leaving 
Egypt, and steering for Palestine, towards the north- 
east, 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 predi- 
lection : for singularly enough, a recent traveller t, 
who met with them in incredible numbers in Asia 
Minor, observed, that although they built on the 
mosques, minarets, and Turkish houses, their nests 
* Chardin. 
•f Macfarlane’s Constantinople . 
