THE STORK. 219

are ventilated : these are its usual and favourite resorts, but
that it sometimes builds on trees, appears from the passage
in the 104th Psalm, “ As for the stork, the fir-trees are her
house ;” and as the stork will build in any situation rather
than on the ground, it is probable that it chooses high trees
where its usual localities are wanting, which may often be
the case in eastern countries, where the flat roofs are a part
of the house much occupied by the family. Shaw says,
that in Barbary the stork builds in the fir and other trees ;
but these birds certainly prefer the neighbourhood of man,
from whom they always receive protection, as they have
for ages been considered sacred ; probably from their grave
appearance, their usual selection of sacred buildings for
their resort, and their tender affection, not only for their
young, but for the old and feeble.

Among the ancients, to kill a stork was considered a great
crime, sometimes even punished with death; and at the pre-
sent time, in Turkey, Persia, and Egypt, or in those parts
of Europe to which they resort, any man would become an
object. of execration, who should injure one of these favoured
birds, or destroy its nest, so much has its amiable and
confiding disposition gained it the protection and esteem
of man.