' THE WHITE STORK. 
783 
Frogs, newts, lizards, slow-worms, adders, snakes, earth¬ 
worms, leeches, fish, moles, mice, young rabbits, leverets, 
young birds, insects of all kinds, snails and other mollusks, 
aye, carrion even: all these are devoured by the Stork. 
It sneaks everywhere after these creatures, and keeps a 
sharp eye on the slightest movement in the grass or 
young corn : as soon as anything moves, down comes 
the beak, which rarely misses. Occasionally it will 
pursue some flying animal with hasty steps. The prey 
is generally killed with a single blow of the beak. The 
Stork will not eat toads, though it detests them to such 
an extent that they are killed whenever it comes across 
them : in small ponds one may often meet with numbers 
of these creatures, still alive, but bearing terrible marks of 
the ill-usage that they have received at the hands, or 
rather the beaks, of Storks. Snakes are first favoured by 
our friend with a good blow on the head, and then another 
on the spine, after which they are swallowed, when he 
troubles himself but little about their writhings, which 
are often continued in his gullet! If a Stork happens to 
swallow an adder alive, and is bitten by it in the throat, 
it suffers a good deal, but does not die from the effects of 
the wound. This bird is so ravenous that it will swallow 
from fifteen to twenty frogs one after another, and is just 
as greedy with fish : it can put away one of the latter nine 
inches in length, in its capacious gullet; larger ones, 
however, are more troublesome, still it will often manage 
to carry off a fish of from two to two and a half pounds 
in weight to its young. It will capture and swallow 
without mercy any and every creature that it can destroy. 
It watches for mice at their holes, and for moles, until it 
can see them working, whilst its hunt for insects is 
unremitting. It drinks a great deal, bathes often and 
