Flamingoes 273 
that is not the case. The floating grasses are only incidentally 
uprooted by the birds while delving in the mud. The Spanish 
marshmen say flamingoes “live on mud,” and truly an examina- 
tion of their crops appears to confirm this. But the mud is only 
taken in because of the masses of minute creatures (animalculae) 
which it contains, and which form the food of the flamingo. 
What precisely these living atoms are would require both a 
microscopical examination and a knowledge of zoophites to 
determine. The tongue of a flamingo is a thick, fleshy organ 
filling the whole cavity of the mandibles, and furnished with a 
series of flexible bony spikes, or hooks, nearly half an inch long 
and curving inwards. Flamingoes’ tongues are said to have 
formed an epicurean dish in Roman days. However that may be, 
we found them, on trial, quite uneat- 
able—tough as india-rubber; even our 
dogs refused the “delicacy.” This bird’s 
flesh is dark-red and rank, quite un- 
eatable. 
In the New World the mystery of 
the nesting habits of the flamingo HEAD OF FLAMINGO 
(Phoenicopterus ruber) was solved just Showing the spikes on tongue and 
5 lamellae on mandibles. 
three years later, and in a precisely tiie heal tesa torts Yarwell oneal 
similar sense. 
We will close this chapter with a reference to a recent and 
most complete demonstration of our subject—that of our name- 
sake, Mr. Frank M. Chapman, of the American Museum, New 
York, in his Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist. Therein 
is set forth, in Chapter IV., the last word on this topic. In 
America, as in Spain, the final solution of the problem was only 
attained after years of patient effort and many disappointments. 
With the thoroughness of thought and honesty of purpose that 
marks our transatlantic progeny while treating of natural pheno- 
mena, this book sets forth the life-history and domestic economy 
of the flamingo, from egg to maturity, illustrated by a series 
of photographs that are absolutely unique.’ We conclude by 
quoting our bird-friend’s opening sentence: ‘“‘ There are larger 
birds than the flamingo, and birds with more brilliant plumage, 
It is right to add that in America the growth of mangrove and other bushes, sometimes 
in close proximity to the nests, offers facilities to the photographer that are wholly wanting 
in Spain, where the flamingo only nests in perfectly open waters devoid of the slightest 
covert or means of concealment. 
T 
