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SCRIPTURE

NATURAL HISTORY

FOR

YOUTH.

BY ESTHER HEWLETT,
(NOW COPLEY.)

WITH

NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIVE ENGRAVINGS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

H. FISHER, SON, & P. JACKSON.

HARMLESS BIRDS.

In entering on this class, one cannot but feel that the stork is in some degree injured by being excluded from it. It seems to be scarcely with justice classed among birds of prey. It is in fact a public benefactor, as it does not appear to be injurious to any creatures except those which are generally esteemed themselves injurious; however, its subsisting on reptiles has given it a place among birds of prey, and there we must leave it, though it is both gentle and affectionate in its disposition, and free from that ferocious voracity which characterizes birds of prey in general.

The Crane.

The crane is a remarkably tall bird. Its legs are very long, and it appears to stand in nearly an erect posture. Its colour is dingy, on the upper part yellowish, and of an iron colour, and the breast and lower part of the body of a dirty white. Its beak is long and sharp-pointed, and its feet and claws are cloven. The crane does not, like the stork, live on impure and venomous creatures, but chiefly subsists on fruits and seeds. Hence it was reckoned among clean birds, and permitted to the Jews for food. In other respects the crane in its character and modes of life very nearly resembles the stork. Cranes are

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