THE FLAMINGO. 43 
long file of flamingoes, ranked up and preening their 
wings, forthwith magnified them into an army of 
English soldiers; their long necks were mistaken 
for shouldered muskets, and their scarlet plumage 
had suggested the idea of a military costume.» The 
poor fellow accordingly started off to Gonaives, 
running through the streets and vociferating that 
the English were come. Upon this alarm the com- 
mandant of the garrison instantly sounded the toc- 
sin, doubled the guards, and sent out a body of men 
to reconnoitre the invaders; but he soon found, by 
means of his glass, that it was only a troop of red 
flamingoes, and the corps of observation marched 
back to the garrison, rejoicing at their bloodless 
expedition. 
The great length of the legs of flamingoes ob- 
viously unfits them for sitting or squatting upon a 
flat or low nest, as is the practice of the families 
allied to them; and hence, according to Linnzus, 
they select for their nests some projecting shelf of 
a rock, upon which they can sit astride, like a man 
on horseback, without bending their legs. With- 
out discrediting this account, we subjoin that which 
Dampier gives of the flamingoes observed by him 
at Rio de la. Hacha, at an island opposite Curacoa, 
and at the Isle of Sal. ‘“‘They make their nest,” 
he says, “‘in the marshes, where they find plenty 
of slime, which they heap with their claws, and 
form hillocks resembling little islets, and which 
appear.a foot ard a half above the water. They 
make the base broad, and taper the structure grad- 
ually to the top, where they leave a small hollow 
to receive their eggs. When they lay or hatch, 
they stand erect, not on the top, but very near it, 
their feet on the ground and in the water, leaning 
themselves against the hillock, and covering the 
nest with their tail. Their eggs are very long, and 
as they make their nest on the ground, they could 
not, without injuring their eggs or their young, 
