272 The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare s Time . 
The Dutch held the belief that the stork, in leaving a 
house where she had been encouraged to build, left one 
of her young ones behind for the owner. If this were 
the case, the mother made but a poor return for her 
offspring’s affection. The kindness with which the bird 
is treated in Holland is repaid by confidence and fami¬ 
liarity—a pair of birds returning year after year to the 
same nest. 
Spenser makes the curious mistake of giving the 
stork a voice :— 
“ Let not the skriecli-owle nor the storke he heard, 
Nor the night-raven, that still deadly yells.” 
(Epitlialamion, 1. 435.) 
The only sound it utters is the sharp snap of its beak, a 
noise not unlike the rattle of a pair of castanets. 
