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AMERICAN ELAMINGO. 
and is of course hollow at the top. There is no lining, nor any thing but 
the bare earth. 4thly, The number of eggs is almost always two. When 
there is one, there has probably been some accident. The time of incubation 
is not known. The egg is white, and near the size of the Goose’s egg. On 
scraping the shell, it has a bluish tinge. 5thly, The colour of the young is 
nearly white, and it does not attain the-full scarlet colour until two years 
old. 6thly, When the young first leave the nest, they take to the water, 
and do not walk for about a fortnight, as their feet are almost as tender as 
jelly. I do not think it easy to procure an entire nest ; but I am promised 
some of the eggs, this being the time to procure them. 
“Very truly your obedient servant, 
“A. Mallory.” 
Another communication is as follows : 
“ The Flamingo is a kind of bird that lives in lagoons having a communi- 
cation with the sea. This bird makes its nest on the shore of the same 
lagoon, with the mud which it heaps up to beyond the level of the water. 
Its eggs are about the size of those of a Goose ; it only lays two or three at a 
time, which are hatched about the end of May. The young when they 
break the shell have no feathers, only a kind of cottony down which covers 
them. They immediately betake themselves to the water to harden their 
feet. They take from two to three months before their feathers are long 
enough to enable them to fly. The first year they are rose-coloured, and in 
tjie second they obtain their natural colour, being all scarlet ; half their bill 
is black, and the points of the wings are all black ; the eyes entirely blue. 
Its flesh is savoury, and its tongue is pure fat. It is easily tamed, and feeds 
on rice, maize-meal, &c. Its body is about a yard high, and the neck about 
half as much. The breadth of the nest, with little difference, is that of the 
crown of a hat. The way in which the female covers the eggs is by stand- 
ing in the water on one foot and supporting its body on the nest. This bird 
always rests in a lagoon, supporting itself on one leg alternately ; and it 
is to be observed that it always stands with its front to the wind.” 
An egg, presented to me by Dr. Bachman, and of which two were found 
in the nest, measures three inches and three-eighths in length, two inches 
and one-eighth in breadth, and is thus of an elongated form. The shell is 
thick, rather rough or granulated, and pure white externally, but of a bluish 
tint when the surface is scraped off. 
Red Flamingo, Phcenicopterus ruber , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 145. 
Phcenicopterus ruber, Bonap. Syn., p. 348. 
American or Red Flamingo, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 71. 
American Flamingo, Phcenicopterus ruber, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 255. 
