FLAMINGOS. 



155 



The flamingos are often kept in captivity, and their manners and habits, so far as 

 they could be observed in a zoological garden, are well known. In the wild state, 

 however, they are extremely shy birds, and of their breeding history nearly nothing 

 was known, the old fable of their riding astride on top of high pyramids being copied 

 from age to age in words and pictures, notwithstanding that Naumann, as early 

 as 1838, demonstrated the anatomical and 

 physiological impossibility of the alleged 

 position of the breeding bird, and in spite 

 of Dr. Cresson's assertions to the contrary. 

 The story originated with the famous trav- 

 eler Dampier, but from his narrative it is 

 clear that he was only speaking upon hear- 

 say evidence ; for when, in 1683, he visited 

 the Cape Verde Islands, he found only nests 

 and young ones, but no eggs ; and the ac- 

 count of the breeding is therefore evidently 

 based upon the tales of the natives. It runs 

 as follows : 



" When incubating they stand with their 

 legs 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." 



His statement has, however, been generally, if not universally, accepted, for want 

 of a better, inasmuch as no competent observer had succeeded until 1881 in watching 

 the manner in which the flamingo performed the task of incubation. Eggs have, 

 indeed, been obtained by the bushel, but the wariness of the birds precluded any trust- 

 worthy account until the visit of H. H. Jonston, in 1881, to a small colony in the Lake 

 of Tunis, and of Mr. Abel Chapman, in 1883, to a large one near the mouth of the 

 river Guadalquivir in Spain. The former says : " I took up my opera-glass and saw 

 on two mounds, some foot and a half high, two flamingos sitting with their legs under 

 them. Of this I am certain : I could see the tarsi protruding beyond the loose plumes 

 of the wings." The latter gentleman's account is fuller, so we give the following 

 extract from his narrative : 



" The islands were about six miles distant from the low shores of the ' marisma,' 

 and at that distance no land whatever was in sight. The only relief from the monot- 

 ony of endless wastes of water were the birds ; a shrieking, clamoring crowd hung 

 overhead, while only a few yards off the surface was dotted with troops of stilts, 

 sedately stalking about, knee-deep. Beyond these the strange forms of hundreds of 

 flamingos met one's eye in every direction, some in groups or in dense masses; 

 others, with rigidly outstretched neck and legs, flying in short strings or larger flights, 



FIG. 75. Restoration of the skeleton of PaUeolodus 

 ambiguum. 



