PLUMAGE OF FLAMINGO 



As might naturally be supposed, these long legs imply a 

 marsh haunting existence, and the bill is formed for 

 dabbling in the mud and fishing out nutritious particles. 

 In captivity the flamingoes are a very argumentative 

 race, continually " cawing " at each other, and bestow- 

 ing mild pecks as the argument waxes warm. The 

 strange form of the bird has given rise to legend : it has 

 been asserted that the flamingo straddles over its high 

 nest of mud ; but in reality it sits down to incubate like 

 any other bird. The flamingo that is met with in 

 Europe lacks the almost universal red of the American 

 Phcenicopterus ruber. It is noteworthy that the spoon- 

 bill of America is also much redder than its European 

 ally. All these very red birds fade in captivity. Pos- 

 sibly the diminution of brilliancy is due to the impossi- 

 bility of providing them with the exact food to which 

 they are accustomed in nature. This red colour is, of 

 course, the source of the name of the bird, which, by the 

 way, it would be far better to call by the English name 

 of flammant than by the Portuguese name flamingo. 



THE SHOE-BILL (Balaniceps rex) 

 This great bird, found along the Nile, and lately 

 shown by Sir Harry Johnston to frequent also the 

 shores of Victoria Nyanza, will very likely be on view 

 in the Zoo by the time that these notes reach the reader. 

 It has been once exhibited ; but that was so long ago as 

 1860, when a pair were brought over by Mr. Consul 

 Petherick. Their remains now grace the collection of 

 animals at the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 

 The shoe-bill is named on account of the shape of its 

 great beak, and partly in translation of its Arabic name, 

 which is Abu-Markhub, or father of a slipper. Others 

 have called it the whale-headed stork ; but " stork " begs 

 the question of its likenesses and unlikenesses, of which 

 we shall have something to say here. The bird stands 



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