278 
POPULAE HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
separating their food from the water and mud in which they 
find it. 
Mr. Darwin found that flamingoes through South America 
were much attached to salt lakes ; he saw many of them in 
the Salinas near the mouth of the Eio Negro^ wading about 
in search of their food, which consists probably of the worms 
which burrow in the mud"^. He adds^ that the workmen 
sometimes find their bodies preserved in the salt. Mr. Hillf 
describes the flamingoes as being very common in Cuba, in 
marshes, and lagoons, and salina-ponds, where they move 
abont in flocks, or may be seen feeding in ranks of two and 
three hundred together, while one of their number, standing 
erect, keeps a look-out to warn his comrades of the approach 
of danger. "Their lengthened lines and red plumage have 
led the colonial Spaniards to call them E^iglish Soldiers, — a 
name not inappropriate to birds that marshal themselves 
under a leader, and regulate their movements by signals, 
when the remotest danger threatens ; and obey the bugle- 
blast of their sentinel, when he summons the cohorts to the 
wing and to betake themselves to other feeding-grounds."*^ 
Mr. Hill describes the flamingoes as constantly trampling 
with their feet when they feed, while they ply their long lithe 
* Journal, p. 77. t Iii Grosse*s 'Birds of Jamaica/ p. 391. 
