CHAPTEE XXVI 



FLAMINGOES 



THE QUEST FOR THEIR INCUNABULA 



The fiamiiigo stands in a class apart. Allied to no other bird- 

 form — hardly so much as related — it may be regarded almost as 



a separate act of crea- 

 tion. Its nesting habits, 

 and the method by 

 which a bird of such 

 abnormal build could 

 incubate its eggs, 

 formed for generations 

 a " vexed question " in 

 bird-life. The story of 

 the efibrts made by 

 British naturalists to 

 solve the problem ranks 

 anions the classics of 

 ornithology. The maris- 

 mas of Guadalquivir were early known to be one of the few Euro- 

 pean incunabula of the flamingo ; but their vast extent — " as big 

 as our eastern counties," Howard Saunders wrote — and the 

 irregularity of the seasons (since flamingoes only remain to nest 

 in the wettest years) combined to frustrate exploration. Fii'st 

 in the field was Lord Lilford — as early as 1856; and both 

 durino- that and the two succeedinoj decades he and Saunders 

 (who appeared on the scene in 18G4) undertook repeated journeys 

 — all in vain. The record of these makes splendid reading, and 

 will be found as follows : — 



Lord Lilford, " On the Breeding of the Flamingo in Spain," 

 Proceedings Zoological Society of London, 1880, pp. 446-50; 



265 



A TYPICAL SIGHT IN THE MARISMA 



