THE GEESE, SWANS, AND DUCKS. 223 



Flamingo in England are undoubted, and no evidence has 

 been forthcoming that in any of the cases they were escaped 

 birds. The first was taken in Staffordshire, in September, 1881, 

 and another was shot near Beaulieu in Hampshire, in November, 

 1883, having been flying about for a fortnight after a great gale 

 from the south-west, which may have driven the bird to our 

 shores. Another was seen in the Hoy, near New Romney in 

 Kent, in August, 1884, by Captain Shelley ; and the old sports- 

 man must have imagined himself back in Egypt, when he saw a 

 Flamingo flying past him on the Kentish coast. Another was 

 shot in the Isle of Sheppey, in August, 1873, but Mr. Howard 

 Saunders thinks that this may have been an individual which 

 escaped from the Zoological Gardens on the iQth of July in 

 the same year. Although we now look upon the occurrence of 

 a Flamingo in England as something extraordinary, palaeonto- 

 logists show that in ancient times they were common enough 

 in Central Europe, and even in the South of England. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Flamingo is a bird of 

 Southern Europe, whence it extends eastwards from the Medi- 

 terranean to Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia, and it is also 

 found breeding in India, and extends to Ceylon, as well as all 

 over Africa. It has been observed occasionally in Switzerland, 

 and on the Rhine it has been seen in flocks. 



Habits. The Flamingo breeds in the salt-marshes of the 

 Camargue in Southern France, and in Southern Spain and 

 other suitable localities in Southern Europe and the Caspian 

 district. The nest is made of mud, and the bird sits on it with 

 its long legs doubled up under it, and its neck twisted round, 

 so as to rest on its back. The eggs are two in number, and are 

 of a chalky-white. Axis, 3*55-37 inches; diam., i'i5- 



THE GEESE, SWANS, AND DUCKS. 



ORDER ANSERIFORMES. 



The members of this Order have a bridged, or desmognathous, 

 palate, and their downy young are able to run about in a few 

 hours. Besides these characters, which Mr. Seebohm believes 

 to be thoroughly diagnostic of the Order, there are many others, 

 chiefly anatomical, which distinguish the Ducks and Geese. 



