THE FLAMINGOES. 221 



distances, and often go a Long way from their breeding-stations 

 in search of food. 



Eggs. Only one. The ground-colour is bluish, but is 

 obscured by a chalky covering as in the case of the Cormo- 

 rants. Mr. Robert Read, to whom I am indebted for many 

 interesting notes on British birds, writes to me: "I have 

 taken many eggs on Ailsa Craig. Some of them are perfectly 

 black with stains from the birds' feet, but if a Gannet's egg be 

 soaked in warm water and well scrubbed with a hard brush, all 

 the chalky coating can be removed, and there is then present 

 a beautifully clear-looking bluish egg, in texture and appear- 

 ance much resembling that of a Heron. The birds, when 

 sitting hard, hiss like a common Goose, and require a lot of 

 stirring up to make them leave their eggs." Axis, 2 '85-3 '3 

 inches; diam., 1-8-2-0. 



THE FLAMINGOES. 



ORDER PILENICOPTERIFORMES. 



Judged by their long legs and general appearance, the 

 Flamingoes would appear to be a kind of aberrant Stork, and 

 there are not wanting naturalists who consider them to be 

 more of a Stork than a Duck ; but, weighing the whole of the 

 characters, the balance in favour of their affinity to the Ducks 

 is incontestable, and two characters seem to point to their true 

 affinity, viz., the possession of lamellae on the edge of the 

 bill, and the downy young, which are able to run about and 

 feed themselves soon after being hatched. No Stork has these 

 characteristics, and therefore, if the Flamingo has certain Stork- 

 like characters, the weight of evidence is in favour of its being 

 a Stork-like Duck, and I place these birds in my system of 

 classification between the Storks and the Ducks (cf. Sharpe, 

 Classif. B. p. 76). The outward structure of a Flamingo, with 

 its long legs and its peculiar bent bill and long neck, is suffi- 

 cient to distinguish the bird from any other member of the 

 British avifauna, while there are several osteological characters 

 by which the Flamingoes can be distinguished. As, however, 

 the birds concern the British fauna but little, there is no need 

 to enlarge on the minute characters of the group, the external 

 ones being sufficient to distinguish a Flamingo at a glance. 



