B. T. LOWNE ON THE FLAMINGO. 



195 



food for feeding their offspring; the pigeon affords a well-known ex- 

 ample : when the young are about to be hatched, the lining mem- 

 brane of the crop becomes thickened and pours out a milky fluid, 

 which, mixed with comminuted grain, is given to the young. An 

 even more remarkable example is afforded by the Hornbill, for a 

 detailed account of which I am likewise indebted to Mr. Bartlett : 

 the male bird, when the female is sitting, is addicted to rather an 

 Eastern mode of procedure ; he builds up his mate in the hollow 

 of the tree where her nest is built, with a mud wall, leaving a hole 

 through which he feeds her, keeping her a close prisoner until the 

 young are grown. This extraordinary bird fills his crop with fruit, 

 and after a time, brings the whole up, surrounded by a gelatinous 

 envelope, secreted by the walls of the crop — this he presents to his 

 captive wife, a cabob of peculiar composition. 



It is a matter of paramount importance for future observers to 

 settle, whether the blood with which the secretion from the 

 flamingo's stomach is stained is a healthy or unhealthy element 

 in it. Several of the swifts and swallows are provided with a 

 secretion from the crop, with which they agglutinate the 

 materials for their nests. It is well known that the swallows 

 which make the edible nest of which the Chinese make their 

 soup, elaborate that delicacy in their crops. It is, moreover, 

 asserted that when deprived of their first nest the second is often 

 stained with blood. This may be accounted for by the crop becom- 

 ing highly congested by the efforts of the bird to construct a second 

 nest. The case of the flamingoes may be analogous to this. We 

 know they are placed under unnatural conditions, and during sexual 

 excitement which does not lead to the development of ova nothing 

 is more likely than an over congested condition of the crop. 



The formation of a blood-stained secretion is of importance in 

 another point of view, especially if this should turn out to be a 

 healthy act, which Mr. Bartlett thoroughly believes, as he thinks 

 it explains the old fable of the pelican feeding its young with its 

 own blood, supposing the flamingo to be meant instead of the 

 pelican. This secretion appears to afford an additional argument in 

 favour of a theory first propounded I believe by Bichat, that in 

 certain hsemorrhages the blood escapes from the capillaries without 

 any rupture of their walls, by a process which has been called 

 exhalation. I remember a very eminent professor of medicine 

 stating his belief in the process, and explaining the manner in 



