148 THE FLAMINGO. 



must naturally drop from the mouth; and so it 

 would, if the bird fed as other birds do. But it 

 adopts its own method, by turning its head, and 

 scooping up the soft substances on which it preys, 

 using the upper mandible as a sort of spoon. 



Beak of the Flamingo. 



This would certainly be inconvenient, if not impos- 

 sible, to other birds; but not to the Flamingo, owing 

 to its remarkably long, slender, and flexible neck. 

 A still greater inconvenience would ensue, if it were 

 under the necessity of sitting on its nest, like other 

 birds, for it would then be utterly impossible to dis- 

 pose of its long, stilted, disproportioned legs. Nature 

 has, however, met the difficulty, and taught it how 

 to make a nest exactly suited to its form and length 

 of leg. It is made of mud, in the shape of a hillock, 

 with a cavity of the top, where the eggs are laid, and 

 the height of the hillock is such, that she can sit as 

 comfortably on her nest as a horseman does on his 

 saddle, leaving her legs to hang dangling down at 

 full length on either side. 



This bill, misshapen as it is, can also, in case of 

 necessity, be used for a very different purpose from 

 that of feeding; for one of these birds, in confine- 

 ment, having been accidentally deprived of a leg, 



