Few migratory birds are more punctual to the time of their reappearance than the white stork, or, at least, from its famiharity and conspicuousness, its migrations have been more accurately noted. " Tlie stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times" (see Virgil, Georr/. ii, 319, and Petron. Sat.). Pliny states that it is rarely seen in Asia Minor after the middle of August. This is |)robably a sliglit error, as the ordinary date of its arrival in Holland is the second week in April, and it remains until October. In Denmark Judge Boie noted its arrival from 1820 to 1847. Tiie earliest date was Marcli 2(3, and the latest April 12 (Kjaerbolling, Danmuvks Fugle, j). 2G2). In I'alestine it has been ob- served to arrive on iMarch 22. Immense flocks of storks may be seen on the banks of the Upper Xile during winter, and some few farther west, in the Sahara ; but it does not appear to migrate very far south, unless, indeed, the birtls that are seen at the Cape of Good Hope in December be the same which visit Europe.
The stork has no note, and the only sound it emits is that caused by the sudden snapping of its long man- dibles, well expressed by the ei)ithet " crotalistria" in Petron. (quasi KpoTaXiZw, to rattle the castanets). From the absence of voice probably arose the error alluded to by Plinj-, " Sunt qui ciconiia non inesse Unguas confir- ment."
Some unnecessary difficulty has been raised respect- ing the expression in Psa. civ, 17, "As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house." In the West of Europe the home of the stork is connected with the dwellings of man ; and in the East, as the eagle is mentally asso- ciated with the most sublime scenes in nature, so, to the traveller at least, is the stork with the ruins of man's noblest works. Amid the desolation of his fallen cities throughout Eastern Europe and the classic portions of Asia and Africa, we arc sure to meet with them surmount- ing his temples, his theatres, or baths. It is the same in Palestine. A pair of storks have possession of the only tall piece of ruin in the plain of Jericho; they are the only tenants of the noble tower of llichard CiL-ur-de-Lion at Lydda; and they gaze on the jjlain of Sharon from the lofty tower of Kamleh (tlie ancient Arimathea). So they have a pillar at Tiberias, and a corner of a ruin at Nebi Mousseh. And no doubt in ancient times the sentry shared the watch-tower of Samaria or of Jezrccl with the cherished storks. But the instinct of the stork seems to be to select the loftiest and most consjiicuous spot he can find where his huge nest may be supported ; and whenever he can combine this taste with his in- stinct for the society of man, he naturally selects a tower or a roof. In lands of ruins, which from their
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ncfrlcot anil want of drainage supply him with abun- dance of food, he finds a column or a solitary arch the most secure position for his nest; but where neither towers nor ruins abound he does not hesitate to select a tall tree, as both storks, swallows, and many other birds must have done before they were tempted by the anilicial conveniences of man's buildings to desert their natural places of nitlilication. Tlius the golden eagle builds, according to circumstances, in cliffs, on trees, or even on the ground ; and tlie common heron, which gen- erally associates -on the tops of the tallest trees, builds in Westmoreland an<l in (ialway on bushes. It is there- fore needless to inierpret the text of the stork merely perrhimi on trees. It prol)ably was no less numerous in Palestine when David wrote than now ; but the number of suitable towers must have been far fewer, ami it would therefore resort to trees. Though it does not frequent trees in South Judiea, yet it still builds on trees by the Sea of Galilee, according to several trav- ellers; and Tristram remarks that, while he has nev- er seen tlie nest except on towers or pillars in that land of ruins, Tunis, the only nest he ever saw in Mo- rocco was on a tree. Varro (^e Rustica, iii, 5) observes, "Advenie volucres pullos faciunt, in lu/ro ciconiie, in tecto hirundincs." All modern authorities give in- stances of the white stork building on trees. Degland mentions several pairs which still breed in a marsh near Chalons-sur-Marue {07-n. Kiirop. 'n, IbS). Kjaer- b<5lling makes a similar statement with respect to Den- mark, and Nillson also as to Sweden. Biideker observes " that in (iermany the white stork builds in the gables, etc., and in trees, chiefly the tops of poplars and the strong upper branches of the oak, binding the branches together with twigs, turf, and earth, and covering the Hat surface with straw, moss, and feathers" (Eler Eur. pi. xxxvi).
The black stork, no less common in Palestine, has never relinipiished its natural habit of building upon trees. This species, in the north-eastern portion of the land, is the most abundant of the two (Harmer's Obs. iii. 323). Of either, however, the expression may be taken literally that "the tir-trees are a dwelling for the stork."