the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Bible Dictionaries
Stork
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or 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. 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.' 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.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Stork'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/s/stork.html. 1893.
