46 FLAMINGO. 



Cayenne,* on the Coast of Brazil, and the various Islands of the West 

 Indies. Sloane found them in Jamaica; but they more particularly 

 frequent the Bahama Islands, and that of Cuba, and breed there. 

 Their food chiefly consists of small fish,f or their eggs; also water 

 insects, which they search after by plunging in the bill, and part of 

 head ; from time to time trampling with their feet to make the water 

 muddy, and to raise their prey from the bottom. In feeding they 

 are said to apply the upper part of the bill to the ground ; X whilst 

 feeding one of them stands sentinel, and when he sounds an alarm, 

 the whole flock take wing. The Flamingo is said to sleep on one 

 leg, the other being drawn up close to the body, with the head 

 placed beneath the wing. 



The flesh is by some much esteemed, and thought to equal that 

 of the Partridge. The late Mr. White mentions the extreme softness 

 of the flesh on the breast, which may be taken out by the fingers, 

 and separated from the skin without a knife, and that the fat, as in 

 the Stork, is red. Davies§ observes, that they are commonly fat, 

 and accounted delicate; yet the inhabitants of Provence always throw 

 away the flesh, as it has a fishy taste, and only use the feathers as 

 ornaments to other birds, at particular entertainments ;|| but the 

 greatest dainty is the tongue, which was esteemed by the ancients 

 as an exquisite morsel.^j 



* Called there Tococo. f Also small shell fish. — Gesner. J Linnceus. Gesner. 



% Hist. Barb. p. 88. || Dillon. Trav. p. 374. extr. 



^| See Plin. TV. H. I. x. cap. 48. Martial says thus of it in one of his Epigrams — 



" Dat lnihi Penna rubens nomen, sed Lingua gulosis 



" Nostra sapit : quid si garrula lingua foret ? " — Lib. xiii. ep. 71. 



Apicius, the celebrated Roman glutton, in his book de arte coquinaria, gives directions 

 for dressing the Flamingo, but says nothing about the tongue; and whoever reads the re- 

 ceipt must allow, that whatever genuine taste the bird might have, the high rank nature 

 of the seasoning would effectually cover it, even if it were more ill flavoured than some sup- 

 pose it. See Apic, de Opsoniis, a Lister, p. 173. 



