THE FLAMINGO. 



173 



Observations. 



five eggs, white, and sprinkled with a few san- 

 guine or pale spots. Willoughby tells us, that 

 in a certain grove, at a village called Seven 

 Huys, near Leyden, they build and breed yearly 

 in great numbers. In this grove also, the heron, 

 the bittern, the cormorant, and the shag, have 

 taken up their residence, and annually bring forth 

 their young together. Here the crane kind 

 seems to have formed their general rendezvous ; 

 and, as the inhabitants say, every sort of bird 

 has its several quarter, where none but their own 

 tribe are permitted to reside. Of this grove the 

 peasants of the country make good profit. When 

 the young ones are ripe, those that farm the 

 grove, with a hook at the end of a long pole, 

 catch hold of the bough on which the nest is 

 built, and shake out the young ones ; but some- 

 times the nest and all tumble down together. 



THE FLAMINGO. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the flamingo is 

 web-footed like birds of the goose kind, its 

 height, figure, and appetites render it more of 

 the crane species. With a longer neck and leg 

 than any other of the crane kind, it seeks its 

 food by wading among waters, and only differs 

 from all of this tribe in the manner of seizins; its 



O 



prey ; the heron makes use of its claws, but the 

 flamingo uses only its bill, which is strong and 



