BIRDS. 



461 



long, lithe necks, scooping with their heads reversed and bent inwardly 

 towards their trampling feet. The bill being crooked and flattened for 

 accommodation to this reversed mode of feeding, when the head is thrust 

 down into the mud-shoals and the sand-drifts, the upper bill alone touches 



the ground." 



Fig. 390. — Flamingo (Pfuenicotiterus antiquorum). 



So much has long been known, but about their nesting habits there 

 existed great uncertainty until the present decade. The nests — huge hil- 

 locks of clay — had long been known ; and as some of these were very high, 

 the old account of their nesting was all but universally accepted. Accord- 

 ing to this, the birds sat astride the nest, like a man on horseback, the long 



