171. The COMMON or WHITE STORK (Ardea ciconia) is a bird distinguished by its strong and sharp red bill, its white plumage, and the orbits of the eyes and the quill feathers being black. The feathers of the breast are long and pendulous.
This bird is upwards of three feet in length. It is found in every quarter of the world, except America; and, though rarely seen in England, is extremely common in Holland and some other parts of Europe. It is a bird of passage, and leaves Europe in the autumn for Egypt, Barbary, and some of the countries of Asia.
The Mahometans have the highest veneration for the stork; and any person would be held in abhorrence who attempted to kill or even to molest these birds. They frequent the streets of the most populous towns, where they devour offal and filth of almost every kind; and, in fenny countries, they are of great service by feeding upon noxious reptiles and insects. In ancient Thessaly it was a crime expiable only by death to kill one of them.
Storks are easily tamed and rendered domestic, and may be trained to reside in gardens, which they soon clear of frogs, toads, and other reptiles. In a wild state they make their nests of sticks and dried plants, on lofty trees or the summits of rocks. The inhabitants of Holland frequently place boxes on their houses for them to build in.
The quills of the stork are large, and make excellent pens for writing with.
172. The COMMON HERON (Ardea major, Fig. 41) is a bird of the stork tribe, distinguished by the cinereous colour of its plumage, by the male having a long and pendent crest on the hind part of the head, the feathers of the neck long; and by having a double row of black spots on the neck.
This bird, which is somewhat more than three feet in length, is common in most of the fenny parts of Great Britain.
A few centuries ago heronies were nearly as common in the neighbourhood of noblemen's houses as rookeries. These birds, like rooks, delight in building their nests in society, and on the highest trees. As many as eighty herons' nests are mentioned by Mr. Pennant, to have been counted on a single tree at Cressi Hall, near Gosberton in Lincolnshire.
When heron hawking, or the pursuing of these birds with falcons, was a favourite diversion in this country, great attention was paid to the preservation of the breed, they were ranked among royal game, and were so far protected by the laws, that any person destroying or shooting at one of them was liable to a penalty of twenty shillings. A penalty of ten shillings was exacted for taking young herons from the nest, and any one taking or destroying the eggs, betwixt the twenty-first of March and the thirteenth of June, was punishable by twelve months' imprisonment, and a forfeiture of eightpence for every egg so taken. These birds were formerly as much esteemed for the table as pheasants are now, and no fewer than four hundred herons are stated to have been served up at Archbishop Neville's inthronization feast, in the reign of Edward the Fourth.
Plumes formed of feathers of the heron and egret are used as ornaments for the caps of knights of the garter.