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 re'd 

 flamingoes, and the corps of observation marched 

 back to the garrison, rejoicing at their bloodless 

 expedition. 



The great length of the tegs 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 Linnaeus, 

 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 Curaooa, 

 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 and 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, 



