HIS NOTES ON THE LILFORD COLLECTION 269 



group of Flamingoes are perhaps the most remark- 

 able, not only from the beautiful roseate colour of 

 the upper parts of their wings, and their extrava- 

 gantly long necks and legs, but also from the 

 extraordinary and apparently unnatural positions 

 that they constantly assume. On one occasion 

 a damsel who visited the Flamingoes with a 

 large party, on seeing these birds, was heard to 

 exclaim to her mother : " Oh, ma ! do just look 

 at these great geese. Wouldn't they just make 

 fine giblets ! " We have never put the necks of 

 these birds into culinary use, but the flesh of 

 their bodies is tolerably good eating, and there 

 is a tradition to the effect that their tongues 

 were considered great delicacies by the epi- 

 cures of Old Rome. I have seen many acres 

 of marsh thickly covered by Flamingoes in 

 Southern Spain, and the effect of the rising or 

 setting sun upon a dense flock of these birds on 

 the wing is indescribably beautiful, giving at a 

 distance the effect of a floating roseate cloud. 



1 A Pink-headed Duck from India in this part 

 of the aviary, is one of the rarest birds in my 

 collection. During my forty years of live bird 

 collecting I have only obtained three of this 



