STORK (stork), (Heb. khas-ee-daw', affection, piety, mercy, gratitude).
This name results from a belief, general through all ancient Asia, in the attachment of these birds to each other ; of the young towards the old, and of the parents towards their young. But the lat ter part of this opinion is alone verified by the moderns, in cases where the mother bird has per ished while endeavoring to save her progeny.
Storks are about a foot less in height than the crane, measuring only three feet six inches from the tip of the bill to the end of the toes, and nearly the same to the end of the tail. They have a stout, pointed, and rather long bill, which, to gether with their long legs, is of a bright scarlet color ; the toes are partially webbed, the nails at the extremities flat, and but little pointed be yond The tips of the joints. The orbits are black ish, but the whole bird is white, with the excep tion of a few scapulars, the greater wing covers, and all the quills, which are deep black; they are doubly scalloped out, with those nearest the body almost as long as the very foremost in the wing. This is a provision of nature, enabling the bird more effectually to sustain its after weight in the air, a faculty exceedingly important to its mode of flight, with its long neck, and longer legs equally stretched out, and very neces sary to a migrating species believed to fly without alighting from the lower Rhine, or even from the vicinity of Strasburg, to Africa and to the Delta of the Nile. The passage is performed in Octo ber, and, like that of cranes, in single or in double columns, uniting in a point to cleave the air ; but their departure is seldom seen, because they start generally in the night ; they rise always with clapping wings, ascending with surprising rapidity out of human sight, and arriving at their southern destination as if by enchantment. Here they re
side until the last days of March, when they again depart for the north, but more leisurely and less congregated. A feeling of attachment, not without superstition, procures them an un molested life in all Moslem countries, and a no tion of their utility still protects them in Switzer land, Western Germany, and particularly in Hol land. The storks build their nests in pine, fir, cedar, and other coniferous trees, but seem to pre fer lofty old buildings, towers, and ruins ( Ps. civ :17). With regard to the snake-eating habits of the species. however, the chief resort of storks, for above half the year, is in climates where ser pents do not abound; and they seem at all times to prefer eels, frogs, toads, newts, and lizards ; which sufficiently accounts for their being regard ed as unclean (perhaps no bird sacred in Egypt was held clean by the Hebrew law). Storks feed also on field mice; but they do not appear to relish rats, though they break their bones by repeated blows of their bills. They fly high (Jer. viii :7), with a rushing noise (Lech. v :9). C. H. S.
STORY mid-rawsh', 2 Chron.
xiii:22), history. R. V.," commentary." "As many as know story or have any experience."— The Translators to the reader.