Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/85

Rh and protected by the prejudices of the people in their favour, are to be seen a number of storks most familiarly tame. This bird is the peculiar protegée of republics, and if popular opinion is to be believed, the attachment it bears to liberty will not permit it to inhabit the dominions of a monarch. I will not vouch for the truth of this opinion; but certain it is, that the plumed favourite of the republic has for ages enjoyed the respect and protection of mankind. Plutarch informs us, that in such honour storks were held in Thessaly, that the punishment of exile was denounced against the man who should unfortunately destroy one of these sacred birds; and the Greek language has a word expressive of filial gratitude (αντιπε λαργειν(?)), which, literally translated, signifies to act like a stork. The veneration with which Greece regarded this bird was adopted by the Roman commonwealth. The virtuous Antoninus stamped on the reverse of a medal which bore his head the image of a stork, and beneath the word pietas was inscribed;