A QUAINT NARRATIVE 



while, not on the Hillock, but close by it with their Legs on 

 the ground and in the water, resting themselves against the 

 Hillock, and covering the hollow Nest upon it "with their 

 Rumps: For their legs are very long ; and building thus, as 

 they do, upon the ground, they could neither draw their legs 

 conveniently into their Nests, nor sit down upon them 

 otherwise than by resting their whole bodies there, to the 

 prejudice of their Eggs or their young, were it not for this 

 admirable contrivance, which they have by natural instinct. 

 They never lay more than two Eggs, and seldom fewer. 

 The young ones cannot fly until they are almost full-grown ; 

 but will run prodigiously fast ; yet we have taken many of 

 them/ 



This account of the manner in which the hen flamingo 

 incubates her eggs was generally accepted as the right one 

 until quite recent years ; indeed, it still survives as the lo ^al 

 tradition in the parts of Southern France where these birds 

 occasionally breed. To anybody who is unacquainted with 

 their habits, it would appear a very simple matter to observe 

 the way in which they sit upon their eggs. There are, 

 however, considerable difficulties to be surmounted, for the 

 marshes and remote lagoons in which the flamingoes nest are 

 often by no means easy of access. The birds, moreover, are 

 extremely shy, and the greatest care is necessary in stalking 

 them ; otherwise the whole colony, numbering, it may be, 

 several hundreds, will be alarmed and take to flight, floating 

 through the air like a beautiful pink cloud. 



Sir Harry Blake, who was at some trouble to study the 

 nesting habits of flamingoes in the Bahamas, informs us 

 that in those islands they begin to repair their old nests or 

 to raise new ones in the month of May. They build them 

 in the shallow margins of lagoons or on the banks, some- 

 times as many as four hundred in a group and but three or 



125 



