( 71 ) 



The Fhmmant, Phoenicopterus. 



Numb. LXXVII. 



JTS Length, from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Claws was four 

 •^ Foot ten Inches and a half; Breadth four Foot; the Legs fixteen 

 Inches from the Knee to the end of the middle Claw ; its Bill five Inches 

 and a Quarter long, of a lingular Shape; the upper Mandible is flat and 

 broad, crooked and toothed ; the lower thicker than the upper ; the Tip 

 black, in the^young Birds of a dark blew. 



It is two Years before it arrives to its perfect Colour, at which time it 

 is entirely red, except the prime Feathers of the Wings, which are black, 

 when it is at its full bignefs ; its Weight is two Pounds Hx Ounces and a 

 half; its Legs are long, and of a red Colour, bare of Feathers a good 

 way above the Knees ; the Toes webbed together ; the Claws black. 



Thefe Birds make their Nefts on Hillocks in {hallow Water, on which 

 they fit with their Legs extended downward. They breed on the Coafts of 

 Cuba and the Bahama Iflands, and frequent the fait Water; a Man, by con- 

 cealing himfelf from their fight, may kill great Numbers of them, for they 

 will not rife at the report of a Gun ; neither is the fight of thofe killed 

 clofe by them, fuflicient to terrify the reft, and warn them of the Danger; 

 but they ftand gazing, and. as it were aftonifhed, till they are moft or all 

 of them killed. When they feed (which is always in fhallow Water) by 

 bending their Neck, they lay the upper part of their Bill next the Ground, 

 their Feet being in continual Motion up and down in the Mud ; by which 

 they raife a fmall round fort of Seed or Grain, refembling Millet, which 

 they receive into their Bill ; and as there is a Necellity of admitting into 

 their Mouths fome Mud, Nature has provided the Edges of their Bill 

 with line Teeth like thofe of a Comb, with which they retain the Food, 

 and rejed the Mud that is taken in with it. This Account Mr. Cateshy 

 had from Perfons of good Credit, but cannot politively affirm it to be 

 true, having never feen them feed ; neither doth he contradid the Opi- 

 nion of their feeding on Fifh, Nature having made fome of our Birds, 

 viz. the Shovelar^ with an exquifite fine toothed Bill, which preys on Fifh, 

 which I have found in the Stomachs of thofe I have differed. This Bird. 

 I had fent me by TVilliam Archer Efq; who had it from Sir Robert TFal- 

 poles, where it had been kept alive.in the Kitchen fome time. 



7hs 



