CHAPTER VII 

 MAKERS OF MOUNDS 



BIRDS 



Flamingoes Hillock nests A quaint narrative Stalking flamingoes 

 An old story disproved An albatros "rookery" Albatros-nesting 

 The mallee-bird Preparing the incubator An immense mound 

 Burying the eggs The Australian mound-bird Nests upon which 

 trees sometimes grow A nest of iron-stone Digging for eggs. 



THE Flamingo (Phcenicopterus), that strange-looking 

 bird which has on rare occasions been reported as a 

 visitor to British shores, but whose home is in the 

 extreme south of Europe and other countries where the 

 climate is warmer than ours, erects a mound of earth with a 

 cavity at the top for the reception of its eggs. 



The earliest definite account of these remarkable structures 

 which has been handed down to us appears to be that given 

 by Dampier of his own observations near Querisao (i.e. 

 Curacao) as long ago as 1683, and is well worth quoting for 

 its quaintness. He tells us that the flamingoes " build their 

 Nests in shallow Ponds, where there is much Mud, which 

 they scrape together, making little Hillocks, like small 

 Islands, appearing out of the Water, a foot and a half high 

 from the bottom. They make the foundation of these 

 Hillocks broad, bringing them up tapering to the top, where 

 they leave a small hollow pit to lay their Eggs in ; and when 

 they either lay their Eggs, or hatch them, they stand all the 



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