THE FLAMINGOES. 
22 I 
distances, and often go a long way from their breeding-stations 
in search of food. 
Eggs. — Only one. The ground-colour is bluish, but is 
obscured by a chalky covering as in the case of the Cormo- 
rants. Mr. Robert Read, to whom I am indebted for many 
interesting notes on British birds, writes to me; — “I have 
taken many e^s on AiLsa Craig. Some of them are perfectly 
black with stains from the birds’ feet, but if a Gannet’s egg be 
soaked in warm water and well scrubbed with a hard brush, all 
the chalky coating can be removed, and there is then present 
a beautifully clear-looking bluish egg, in texture and appear 
ance much resembling that of a Heron. The birds, when 
sitting hard, hiss like a common Goose, and require a lot of 
stirring up to make them leave their eggs.” Axis, 2'85-3-3 
inches; diam., i'8-2'o. 
THE FLAMINGOES. 
ORDER PH2ENICOPTERIFORMES. 
Judged by their long legs and general appearance, the 
Flamingoes would appear to be a kind of aberrant Stork, and 
there are not wanting naturalists who consider them to be 
more of a Stork than a Duck ; but, weighing the whole of the 
characters, the balance in favour of their affinity to the Ducks 
is incontestable, and two characters seem to point to their true 
affinity, viz., the po.ssession of lamellae on the edge of the 
bill, and the downy young, which are able to run about and 
feed themselves soon after being hatched. No Stork has these 
characteristics, and therefore, if the Flamingo has certain Stork- 
like characters, the weight of evidence is in favour of its being 
a Stork-like Duck, and I place these birds in my system of 
classification between the Storks and the Ducks (cf. Sharpe, 
Classif. B. p. 76). The outward structure of a Flamingo, with 
its long legs and its peculiar bent bill and long neck, is suffi- 
cient to distinguish the bird from any other member of the 
British avifauna, while there are several osteological characters 
by which the Flamingoes can be distinguished. As, however, 
the birds concern the British fauna but little, there is no need 
to enlarge on the minute characters of the group, the e.xternal 
ones being sufficient to distinguish a Flamingo at a glance. 
