362 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



he will find abundant proofs in every climate. 

 There is feen, on the (hores of India, a large and 

 beautiful bird, white and fire- coloured, called the 

 flamingo., not that it is of Flemijh extraction , but 

 the name is derived from the old French word 

 flambant, (flaming) becaufe it appears, at a dif- 

 tance, like a flame of fire. He generally inhabits 

 in fwampy grounds, and fait marfhes, in the wa- 

 ters of which he conftrufts his neft, by railing out 

 of the moifture, of a foot deep, a little hillock of 

 mud, a foot and a half high. He makes a hole 

 in the fummit of this little hillock ; in this the 

 hen depofits two eggs, and hatches them, with 

 her feet funk in the water, by means of the ex- 

 treme length of her legs. When feveral of thefe 

 birds are fitting at the fame time on their eggs, in 

 the midfl of a fvvamp, you would take them, at a 

 diftance, for the flames of a conflagration, burfting 

 from the bofom of the waters. 



Other fowls prefent contrafts of a different kind, 

 on the fame fliores. The pelican, or wide-throat, 

 is a bird white and brown, provided with a large 

 bag under it's beak, which is of exceflive length. 

 Out he goes every morning to ftore his bag with 

 filh : and, the fupply of the day having been ac- 

 compUflied, he perches on fome pointed rock, on 

 a level with the water, where he flands immove- 

 able 



