290 
BIRD-LIFE. 
One spring, however, there came a male Stork which 
surpassed all the rest, both in patience and impudence: 
this bird waged relentless war with the rightful owner 
while the female was sitting. The worthy paterfamilias 
found himself constantly in hot water defending himself 
and his young. Well, one day, tired out with the endless 
strife, he sits on the nest with his head under his wing. 
The enemy seizes the opportunity, and mounting high 
in the air descends with the velocity of a Gannet upon 
the unconscious owner of the nest, and with such force 
as to transfix the latter with his beak. To the grief and 
astonishment of all beholders, the poor fellow, who had 
so long and so ably defended his house and family, fell 
dead to the ground. And now, what think you the 
widow did ? Why, of course she drove off the horrid 
murderer, and gave way to grief at the death of her 
unhappy husband ? Not a bit of it; she immediately 
accepted him as her second partner, and continued sitting 
as though nothing unusual had happened ! 
This does not say much in favour of the female sex, 
and appears all the more glaring, when I relate a few other 
facts observed by my father, which go to prove what I 
have previously said. Some twenty years or so ago a 
Hoopoe and his mate took up their abode in a valley 
near our house, where they bred. They were the last of 
their race which ever settled near us; since then we 
have occasionally seen these birds during their migrations, 
but have never known them to breed with us. The sad 
end of this last pair of regular residents has possibly 
been handed down in tradition from Hoopoe to Hoopoe. 
The abode of the couple was in a hollow willow tree, 
surrounded with soft green turf, well watered by the 
rich stream of the Ehoda; this, together with the well- 
