NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 457 
manner, which I have not space here to describe. The thoracic 
portion of the body is defended by a sort of cuirass, admirably 
adapted to bear the weight of the superincumbent earth. The 
anatomy of the mole-cricket has been thoroughly described by 
Dr. Kidd, late Eegius Professor at Oxford, Philos. Trans., 115, 
(1825), p. 228. The preparations (611 and 784) of the Eoyal 
College of Surgeons show the anatomy of the mole-cricket. 
The crop, instead of being a gradual dilatation of the oesophagus, 
is appended to the side of that tube, like the crop of a fowl, and 
a longer canal intervenes between it and the gizzard ; two large 
csecal appendages open into the termination of the gizzard, from 
which the true digestive stomach is continued. The liver is 
represented by a great number, from 150 to 200, of minute but 
long capillary cseca which all unite into one common tube 
or duct, which conveys the biliary secretion into the intestinal 
canal, close to the pylorus. 
Flamingo p. 248. — Probable Origin of the Old Story of 
THE Pelican in the Wilderness Feeding its Young on its 
OWN Blood. — When a boy at Winchester College I was always 
much struck with the representations of the pelican feeding its 
young with its own blood, which adorn the roof of the grand old 
Cathedral at Winchester. Mentioning this one day to Mr. Bartlett, 
he told me that he had discovered the origin of this story, and 
he kindly gave me his observations in writing as follows : — 
The facts I now lay before you appear to me to afford 
a solution to the well-known and ancient story of the Pelican 
in the Wilderness. I have heard that the so-called fable origin- 
ated, or is to be found, on some of the early Egyptian monu- 
ments (I do not know where), but that the representations are 
more like flamingoes than pelicans. I have published in the 
" Proceedings of the Zoological {Society," March 1869, what I 
consider to be the facts of the case. The flamiugoes in the gar- 
dens have frequently shown signs of breeding, and have been 
supplied with heaps of sand to form their nests, but without 
result ; nevertheless they appear to take considerable notice of 
a pair of cariamas in the same aviary. These birds have a 
habit of bending back their heads, and with open gaping mouths 
utter loud and somewhat distressing sounds. This habit at once 
attracts the flamingoes, and very frequently one or more of them 
advance towards the cariamas, and standing erect over the bird, 
by a slight up and down movement of the head, raise up into 
its mouth a considerable quantity of red-coloured fluid, which, as 
soon as the upper part of the throat and mouth becomes filled 
it will drop or run down from the corners of the flamingo's 
