172 AMERICAN FLAMINGO. 



and is of course hollow at the top. There is no lining, nor any thing but 

 the bare earth. 4thly, The number of eggs is almost always two. When 

 there is one, there has probably been some accident. The time of incubation 

 is not known. The egg is white, and near the size of the Goose's egg. On 

 scraping the shell, it has a bluish tinge. 5thly, The colour of the young is 

 nearly white, and it does not attain the full scarlet colour until two years 

 old. 6thly, When the young first leave the nest, they take to the water, 

 and do not walk for about a fortnight, as their feet are almost as tender as 

 jelly. I do not think it easy to procure an entire nest; but I am promised 

 some of the eggs, this being the time to procure them. 



"Very truly your obedient servant, 



"A. Mallory." 



Another communication is as follows: 



"The Flamingo is a kind of bird that lives in lagoons having a communi- 

 cation with the sea. This bird makes its nest on the shore of the same 

 lagoon, with the mud which it heaps up to beyond the level of the water. 

 Its eggs are about the size of those of a Goose; it only lays two or three at a 

 time, which are hatched about the end of May. The young when they 

 break the shell have no feathers, only a kind of cottony down which covers 

 them. They immediately betake themselves to the water to harden their 

 feet. They take from two to three months before their feathers are long 

 enough to enable them to fly. The first year they are rose-coloured, and in 

 the second they obtain their natural colour, being all scarlet; half their bill 

 is black, and the points of the wings are all black; the eyes entirely blue. 

 Its flesh is savoury, and its tongue is pure fat. It is easily tamed, and feeds 

 on rice, maize-meal, &c. Its body is about a yard high, and the neck about 

 half as much. The breadth of the nest, with little difference, is that of the 

 crown of a hat. The way in which the female covers the eggs is by stand- 

 ing in the water on one foot and supporting its body on the nest. This bird 

 always rests in a lagoon, supporting itself on one leg alternately; and it is to 

 be observed that it always stands with its front to the wind." 



An egg, presented to me by Dr. Bachman, and of which two were found 

 in the nest, measures three inches and three-eighths in length, two inches 

 and one-eighth in breadth, and is thus of an elongated form. The shell is 

 thick, rather rough or granulated, and pure white externally, but of a bluish 

 tint when the surface is scraped off. 



Red Flamingo, Phcenicoptems ruber, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 145. 



Phcenicopterus ruber, Bonap. Syn., p. 348. 



American or Red Flamingo, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 71. 



American Flamingo, Phcenicopterus ruber, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 255. 



