STOEK. 
317 
GRALLATOB.ES. 
ARB El DM 
STORK. 
ClCONIA ALBA. 
PLATE LXXXIV. FIG. I. 
No one can have travelled through Germany, in the 
summer season, without having had their interest ex¬ 
cited by observing this, the favourite bird of the coun¬ 
try. In Holland, Belgium, and the German States, the 
Stork not only meets with the kind protection afforded 
to all the feathered race, but is courted with a cherished 
and superstitious welcome, which seems to elevate it to a 
place amongst the household gods of the people. Invita¬ 
tions are held out to it by the inmates of the different 
villages to make their house its home; baskets of wire- 
work, and boxes of wood, are erected on the roofs of some 
of the houses for the reception of its nest; and happy, and 
in good luck, is that person accounted, whose roof-tree 
becomes the object of their choice. It is a beautiful sight 
to watch these graceful birds, when they have young ones, 
standing, as is frequently their wont, statue-like amongst 
them, and as immovable as if they formed a part of the 
building. 
In a ride during the summer from Frankfort to Hei¬ 
delberg, through the well-known Bergstrasse, we seldom 
passed through one of the numerous villages on our way 
without observing several of the nests of this species; in¬ 
deed, it would have been difficult to pass them by unseen, 
occupying, as they do, the most conspicuous places near. 
