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Ohap. XVIII.
THE STORKS.
293
Sound—boom, boom; what a row the guns do kick up,
shaking my very window!
13^.—Old May-day. The storks arrived this
morning, so we may really expect summer ; for storks, unlike
mortals, are never wrong in their calculations — odd
birds they are. It must be a curious sight to witness
one of their gatherings previous to departure at the
approach of winter. A friend of mine came across an
assembly of four hundred perched on the eaves of a
farm-house in Zealand, and watched their proceedings.
Before starting they passed in review the whole flock,
and singled out and separated the aged, and weakly
from the rest, and then, with one accord, pounced upon
them, pecking them literally to pieces; this ceremony
over, they started for Egypt. How they got their
reputation for filial piety I cannot imagine. I heard a
curious anecdote about them a few days since: an
English manufacturer, settled somewhere in Zealand,
amused himself by changing the eggs laid by a stork,
who annually built her nest on his house, for those
of an owl. In due course of time the eggs were
hatched, and he was startled one morning by a
tremendous row going on in the nest of the parent storks.
The male, in a violent state of excitement, flew round
and round his nest; the female chattered away,
protecting her nestlings under her wings: it was quite
evident that the stork was not satisfied with the produce
of his helpmate: there was something “ louche ” about
the whole affair; he would not recognise the offspring.
After a violent dispute the male flew away, and shortly
returned, accompanied by two other storks—birds of
consequence and dignity. They sat themselves down
on the roof, and listened to the pros and cons of the
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