394 ANSERES. ANATID^E. 



some two miles and a half out to sea, with a narrow 

 inlet about nine feet deep at high water. Here the 

 Flamingoes, at the season when they associate in 

 flocks, are congregated by hundreds. They feed 

 divided into the lines I have explained already, 

 and subdivided into companies. A scout on some 

 advantageous point apart, where he may glance 

 alternately at the lengthened reach of the river, and 

 at the sweeping sinuosities of the coast, right and 

 left, sounds his orders to the squadron. A sort of 

 long-drawn trumpet-call is the signal of danger. 

 At the warning to retreat, the whole troop rise on 

 the wing crying and screaming. They fly in a stiff 

 cruciform posture, with the neck extended swan- 

 like, and the legs depending, but stretched behind 

 so as to balance the flight. When thus suddenly 

 alarmed, they rise to the height of the belt of 

 mangroves that close in some neighbouring lagoon, 

 and clearing the fringing woodland, drop within 

 the impervious wilderness, and then feed no longer 

 congregated, but dispersed about." 



Robinson states that " the flesh is tough : they 

 skin them and boil them. The broth is very good 

 and rich. The fat of the bird being orange-coloured, 

 like that of the Great White Curlew, gives it a 

 very agreeable and rich appearance." The Doctor 

 also observes, "The body appears depressed, not com- 

 pressed as the Ardea." (MSS.) 



