220 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST, 



and extended neck, evidently enjoying what is denominated 

 stretch. Their tall forms are mirrored in the glassy lake. 

 They are silent and still. Perchance a distant boatman 

 hails us. Perchance the word backshish is borne on the air 

 with such bawling that the cautious Flamingos, fearful even 

 in their security, are put up. Then what a delicious scene 

 arrests the eye, as the black-pointed wings unfold and reveal 

 the intense red scapularies, which, hidden before, appeared 

 to be cream-colour, pale by comparison with their bright- 

 ness now. They take several steps in the air,* half flying, 

 half walking, and wholly awkward, for twenty yards or 

 more ; and then gathering themselves together they grad- 

 ually let their long legs trail out behind. If a small troop, 

 they perhaps fly away in Indian file ; but if a large one, 

 they go off in one bright mass, the vivid tints of which are 

 visible afar off, and which no man who has seen it will ever 

 forget. When the naturalist has got over his ecstacies he 

 had better go to the mud where they were standing, as if, 

 as is most probable, they have been preening themselves, 

 he will be rewarded by some exquisite feathers. 



It has been well said that the salt lakes in the north 

 of Africa are the Flamingos' home. On the great waters 

 of Egypt they breed so abundantly, that a birdstufifer at 

 Alexandria told me that he got 200 eggs from Mariotis at 

 one raid. What splendid opportunities might here be 

 afforded to anyone sufficiently sun-proof to work out the 

 imperfectly-known details of their nidification, and to fill 

 up the blanks in our knowledge with regard to the posture 

 which the sitting bird assumes and other points. 



Up the Nile, travellers will very likely not see one. We 

 only saw a few. They were between Cairo and Minieh, and 

 were young birds. At the Faioum we did not see any at 



** See Mr. Macgregor's picture of them taking wing on lake Men- 

 zaleh. (The Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 80.) 



