Difference between revisions of "Stork"

<p> '''Stork.''' (Hebrew, '''chasidah''' ). A large bird of passage of the heron family; one of the largest and most conspicuous of land birds, standing nearly four feet high, the jet black of its wings and its bright red beak and legs contrasting finely with the pure white of its plumage. &nbsp;Zechariah 6:9. In the neighborhood of man, it devours readily all kinds of offal and garbage. For this reason, doubtless, it is placed in the list of unclean birds by the [[Mosaic]] law. &nbsp;Leviticus 11:19; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 14:18. </p> <p> The range of the white stork extends over the whole of Europe, except the British isles, where it is now a rare visitant, and over northern Africa and Asia, as far at least as Burmah. The black stork, ( '''Ciconia nigra''' ), though less abundant in places, is scarcely less widely distributed, but has a more easterly range than its congener. Both species are very numerous in Palestine. While the black stork is never found about buildings, but prefers marshy places in forests and breeds on the tops of the loftiest trees, the white stork attaches itself to man, and, for the service which it renders in the destruction of reptiles and the removal of offal, it has been repaid from the earliest times by protection and reverence. </p> <p> The derivation of '''chasidah''' , (from '''chesed''' , ''"Kindness"'' ). [[Points]] to the paternal and filial attachment of which the stork seems to have been a type, among the Hebrews, no less than the [[Greeks]] and Romans. It was believed that the young repaid the care of their parents by attaching themselves to them for life, and tending them in old age. That the parental attachment of the stork is very strong has been proved on many occasions, Few migratory birds are more punctual to the time of their reappearance than the white stork. The stork has no note, and the only sound it emits is that caused by the sudden snapping of its long mandibles. </p>

<p> Four feet high, with jet black wings and bright red beak and legs (&nbsp;Zechariah 5:9). '''''Chacidah''''' , the white stork, '''''Ciconia''''' , '''''Alba''''' , unclean because of its unclean feeding (&nbsp;Leviticus 11:19). From Hebrew '''''Chacid''''' , "dutiful," "piously affectionate." The black stork is more common in the East (but [[Septuagint]] translated "heron".) Its confiding nature toward man, its utility in clearing away offal and reptiles, its attachment to its young, and kindness to the old and feeble, its grave contemplative look, and its predilection for pinnacles of temples, mosques, and churches, have made it in all ages an object of man's special regard and protection; so that in [[Thessaly]] it was a capital crime to kill a stork (Pliny, H. N. 10:21). </p> <p> In the burning of [[Delft]] formerly, and more lately in the battle of Friedland, a mother stork, having vainly tried to extricate her young, perished in the flames herself. The stork punctually observes "her appointed times" of migration at the end of March and beginning of April; in [[Holland]] she remains until October. Storks' nests, unless disturbed, are rebuilt for generations on the same site (&nbsp;Jeremiah 8:7). Regularly they return every spring from their winter abodes in sunnier climes, but God's people will not return to Him even when "the winter" of His wrath is past and He invites them back to "the spring" of His favor. They build their large nests in lofty trees, in the absence of lofty towers and ruins, to which their liking for man's society attracts them (&nbsp;Psalms 104:17). ''(On '' &nbsp;Job 39:13 '', Ssee Ostrich.)'' </p>

<p> '''Stork,''' ''The Pious.'' A bird of passage, much like the crane, but larger. It feeds on insects, snails, frogs, and offal, and was reckoned among unclean birds. The common stork ( ''Ciconia Alba'' ) stands nearly four feet high, and is white except the extremities of the wings, which are black. Its long legs enable it to seek its food in the water as well as on the land, and its bill is so formed as to retain its slippery prey. In [[Palestine]] it builds its nest on trees. &nbsp;Psalms 104:17. "The beauty and power of the stork's wings are seized on as an illustration by Zechariah:'The wind ''Was'' in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork.' &nbsp;Zechariah 5:9. The black pinions of the stork, suddenly expanded from their white body, have a striking effect, having a spread of nearly seven feet, and the bird on the wing, showing its long, bright-red bill and steering itself by its long red legs, stretched out far behind its tail, is a noble sight. The stork has no organs of voice, and the only sound it emits is caused by the sharp and rapid snapping of its bill, like the rattle of castanets."— ''Tristram.'' </p>

<p> ''''' stôrk ''''' ( הסידה , <i> ''''' ḥăṣı̄dhāh ''''' </i> ; variously rendered in the Septuagint: &nbsp; Leviticus 11:19 , ἐρωδιός , <i> ''''' erōdiós ''''' </i> ; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 14:18 , πελεκάν , <i> ''''' pelekán ''''' </i> ; &nbsp;Job 39:13 , ἁσιδά , <i> ''''' hasidá ''''' </i> (transliteration of Hebrew); &nbsp;Zechariah 5:9 , (ἔποψ , <i> ''''' épops ''''' </i> ; Latin <i> Ciconia alba </i> ): A large wading bird of the family <i> Ardeidae </i> , related to crane, ibis, heron and bittern. The stork on wing is a bird of exquisite beauty. The primary, secondary and a few of the tertiary wing feathers are black, the remainder, also the head, neck, and back and under parts white, the bill and legs red. When a perching white bird suddenly unfolds these wonderful wings, having at times a sweep of 7 ft., and sails away, it makes a very imposing picture. Zechariah in a vision saw a woman having the wings of a stork; &nbsp;Zechariah 5:9 , "Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they lifted up the ephah between eaxth and heaven." These birds winter in Africa. In their spring migration many pairs pause in Palestine, others cross the [[Mediterranean]] and spread over the housetops, ruins and suitable building-places of Europe as far north as Rolland and England. Always and everywhere the bird has been more or less protected on account of its fidelity to a chosen location, its fearlessness of man and the tender love between mated pairs and for its young. </p> <p> The stork first appears among the birds of abomination, and it is peculiar that the crane does not, for they are closely related. But the crane eats moles, mice, lizards and smaller animals it can capture, also frogs and fish. To this same diet the stork adds carrion and other offensive matter, and the laws of Moses, as a rule, are formulated with good reason. Yet at one time, storks must have been eaten, for Pliny quoted [[Cornelius]] Nepos, who died in the days of [[Augustus]] Caesar, as saying that "in his time storks were holden for a better dish at board than cranes." Pliny adds: "Yet see, how in our age now, no man will touch a stork if it be set before him on the board, but everyone is ready to reach into the crane and no dish is more in request." He also wrote that it was a capital crime in Thessaly to kill storks, because of their work in slaying serpents. This may have been the beginning of the present laws protecting the bird, reinforced by the steady growth of respect and love for its tender, gentle disposition. The Hebrew word <i> ''''' ḥaı̄dhah ''''' </i> , from which the stork took its name, means "kindness." </p> <p> There is a smaller stork having a black neck and back, that homes in Palestine, but only in small numbers as compared with the white. These birds flock and live in forests around the borders of waste and desert places, and build in trees. The young of both species remain a long time in the nest and are tenderly cared for, so much so indeed that from their performances and love of building on housetops arose the popular tradition that the stork delivers newly born children to homes. The birds first appear in &nbsp;Leviticus 11:19 and &nbsp; Deuteronomy 14:18 . Jeremiah noticed that the stork was migratory; see &nbsp;Jeremiah 8:7 : "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Yahweh." The [[Psalmist]] referred to their nesting in the cedars of Lebanon, for in Palestine these birds could not build on housetops, which were flat, devoid of chimneys and much used by the people as we use a veranda today; see &nbsp; Psalm 104:17 : "Where the birds make their nests: As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house." </p>