van der Stradanus; Cranes Catching Snakes; n.d.; engraving on paper; 8 1/16 in. x 10 11/16 in. (20.4 cm. x 27.2 cm.); Two hunters shielded by a tree witness a fierce battle of storks against snakes. Royal menageries in 16th century Europe featured bloody spectacles of interspecies fights to the death between exotic beasts; such as tigers and elephants. The bird and snake combat recorded in 1st c. Roman Pliny's Natural History; book 10; is described as taking place in Thessaly; Greece; where laws protected storks because of their snake-slaying potency. The Latin verse on the print locates the scene in Apulia; the 'heel' of the boot of Italy:'Vast Appulia nourishes the scaly snakes.The crane and the stork attack their offspring.Here they wage a bitter war with beak and bite....'In modern day Puglia; the common leopard rat snake bears spots like those seen in the print.In ancient times storks were seen as models of parental devotion; and in northern Europe a stork nesting on one's chimney (seen on the right) is sign of good luck.