RED FLAMINGO. 
69 
breed. When seen at a distance, they appear as a regiment 
of soldiers, being arranged alongside of one another, on the 
borders of the rivers, searching for food, which chiefly consists 
of small fish,* * * § or the eggs of them, and of water insects, which 
they search after by plunging in the bill and part of the head ; 
from time to time trampling with their feet to muddy the water, 
that their prey may be raised from the bottom. In feeding? 
are said to twist the neck in such a manner, that the upper 
part of the bill is applied to the ground ; f during this, one of 
them is said to stand sentinel, and the moment he sounds the 
alarm, the whole flock take wing. This bird, when at rest, 
stands on one leg, the other being drawn up close to the body, 
with the head placed under the wing on that side of the body 
it stands on. 
The flesh of these birds is esteemed pretty good meat, and 
the young thought, by some, equal to that of a partridge 
but the greatest dainty is the tongue, which was esteemed by 
the ancients an exquisite morsel. § Are sometimes caught 
young, and brought up tame ; but are ever impatient of cold, 
and in this state w’ill seldom live a great while, gradually losing 
their colour, flesh, and appetite ; and dying for want of that 
food, which, in a state of nature at large, they were abundantly 
supplied with.” 
* Small shell-fish. — Gesner. f Linn^us, Brisson. 
I Commonly fat, and accounted delicate. — Davies’s Hist, of Barbadoes, p. 88. 
The inhabitants of Provence always throw away the flesh, as it tastes fishy, and 
only make use of the feathers as ornaments to other birds at particular enter- 
tainments. — Dillon’s Travels, p* 31^. 
§ See Plin. ix. cap. 48. 
