CHAPTER XXVI 
FLAMINGOES 
THE QUEST FOR THEIR ‘‘ INCUNABULA ” 
Tue flamingo 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- 
an nO, tion. Its nesting habits, 
ii Ve We and the method by 
ig Ht i wr which a bird of such 
a a abnormal build could 
incubate its eggs, 
- formed for generations 
a “vexed question” in 
bird-life. The story of 
the efforts made by 
British naturalists to 
solve the problem ranks 
among the classics of 
ornithology. The maris- 
mas of Guadalquivir were early known to be one of the few Euro- 
pean encunabula 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. First 
in the field was Lord Lilford—as early as 1856; and both 
during that and the two succeeding decades he and Saunders 
(who appeared on the scene in 1864) 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 
