THE CILGERO 371 



Wagner (" Travels in Costa Rica," 1853, 1854) tells us that our 

 nightingale is far inferior to the Cilgero, who entertains his 

 mate with the softest tones of the harmonica, and in Gruiana the 

 flute-bird {Cyphorinus cantans) delights the ear with his me- 

 lodious song. All these lonely musicians of the grove belong to 

 the extensive finch tribe, and, like their European cousins, appear 

 in a simple unostentatious garb. 



The same beauty of plumage which characterises so many of 

 the American forest-birds, adorns, likewise, the feathered tribes 

 of the swamp and the morass, of the river and the lake. Nothing 

 can exceed in beauty a troop of deep red Flamingoes (Phoenico- 

 pterus ruber) on the green margin of a stream. Raised on 

 enormous stilts, and with an equally disproportionate length 

 of neck, the flamingoes would be reckoned among the most 

 uncouth birds, if their splendid robe did not entitle them to 

 rank among the most beautiful. 



They always live in troops, and range themselves, whether 



fishing or resting, like soldiers, in long lines. One of the number 



acts as sentinel, and on the approach of danger gives a warning 



scream, like the sound of a trumpet, when, instantly, the whole 



troop, expanding their flaming wings, rise loudly clamouring 



into the air. 



I These strange-formed birds build in the swamps high conical 



I ' nests of mud, in the shape of a hillock with a cavity at top, in 



\ which the female generally lays two white eggs of the size of 



\. those of a goose, but more elongated. The rude construction is 



f sufficiently high to admit of her sitting on it conveniently, or 



! rather riding, as the legs are placed on each side at full length. 



\ Their mode of feeding is no less remarkable. Twisting their 



' neck in such a manner that the upper part of their bill is applied 



to the ground, they at the same time disturb the mud with one 



of their webbed feet, thus raising up from the water insects and 



spawn, on which they chiefly subsist. 



The Rose-coloured Flamingo, with red wings and black quills 

 [P. antiquorurii), adorn the creeks and rivers of tropical Africa 

 md Asia, and in warm summers extends his migrations as 

 Par northwards as Strasburg on the Rhine. The sight of a 

 loop of flamingoes approaching on the wing, and describing 



B B 2 



