THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 175 
approach, and were all in red plumage ; these would settle 
‘on some distant margin of the lake in line, “resembling a 
company of soldiers.” On reaching the rocky shore of the 
island in question, many young flamingos were discovered, 
some of which were run down and captured. They have 
an awkward gait, but scuttle along at a good pace. These 
were in the grey plumage, and of different stages of 
growth; the larger, just putting forth the quill feathers of 
the wings. Hollis confidently states, that he saw upwards 
of a thousand old flamingos on the lake that day, or rather 
on the small portion of it visited by him. He also saw 
many nests of these birds, and found several of their eggs, 
which appeared to have been thrown out by the parent 
birds, and proved to be addled. They were white, and 
about the size of a common goose ege. The nests were 
composed of mud and sticks, more or less raised on account 
of surrounding water; the highest of these were certainly 
not more than nine inches from the ground, while many 
others were nearly level with it. The surface was hollowed 
out, and capable of containing about two eggs, not more. 
I referred to Wilson’s “American Ornithology,’ and read 
the paragraph which describes the elevated nest constructed 
by this bird, to admit of its long legs dangling on each side 
during the duties of incubation; at this, my informant 
smiled, and assured me that he saw nothing of the kind ; 
that he had particularly noticed many of their nests, and 
that in no one instance did the height of any of them 
exceed what he had already stated—2J. L. H. 
