xxviri BEAKS 351 



Zambesi in 1853 : he gives an interesting account of 

 their nesting habits. The nests are only little hollows 

 on the sand-banks without any attempts at conceal- 

 ment. The young are more helpless than the stork in 

 the fable with the flat dishes, and must have everything 

 conveyed into their mouth by the parents. 



Ornithologists have often arjmed among themselves 



O O O 



whether flamingoes are long-legged ducks or duck-billed 

 storks : this question has never been settled. No one 

 can deny that these long-legged and long-necked birds 

 are particularly attractive on account of their curious 

 shape, their beautiful coloration, and the strange 

 modification of their beaks which enables them to 

 dabble in the mud and sift out the nutritious particles 

 like ducks. When the duck is busy with the mud. the 

 bill is so arranged that the lower half is lowermost ; 

 in the case of the flamingo, the terminal half of the 

 beak is bent at such an angle that when engaged in 

 mud-sifting, or in preening their feathers, the upper half 

 of the beak is lowermost and the upper half of the 

 beak fits into the lower, which is the reverse of the 

 conditions found in birds generally. The odd shape of 

 a flamingo's head and its apparent clumsiness on 

 the end of a long neck reminds me of a golf-club. 



The long neck and legs of the flamingo appear to 

 some observers as awkward appendages to this bjrd. 

 This is not the case. When flamingoes fly, the neck is 

 stretched out in front and the legs behind, so that in 

 full flight the head, neck, body, and legs form one 

 straight line. The birds arise with difficulty from the 

 marshes, uttering their kronk-kronk-kronk like a 

 bronchitic fog-horn. Flamingoes appear awkward when 

 they alight in the marsh, letting down their long legs 

 and drawing them up again as if ashamed of possessing 

 such things, like dainty young ladies in a drawing-room 

 who have recently been put into long skirts and 

 petticoats. 



Many questions have been asked concerning the 



