THE FLA.MINGO. 
147 
must naturally drop from the mouth; and so it 
would, if the bird fed as other birds do. But it 
adopts its own method, by turning its head, and 
scooping up the soft substances on which it preys, 
using the upper mandible as a sort of spoon. 
BEAK OF THE FLAMINGO. 
This would certainly be inconvenient, if not impos- 
sible, to other birds ; but not to the Flamingo, owing 
to its remarkably long, slender, and flexible neck. 
A still greater inconvenience would ensue, if it were 
under the necessity of sitting on its nest, like other 
birds, for it would then be utterly impossible to dis- 
pose of its long, stilted, disproportioned legs. Nature 
has, however, met the difficulty, and taught it how to 
make a nest exactly suited to its form and length of 
leg. It is made of mud, in the shape of a hillock, 
with a cavity at the top, where the eggs are laid, and 
the height of the hillock is such, that she can sit as 
comfortably on her nest as a horseman does on his 
saddle, leaving her legs to hang dangling down at 
full length on either side. 
This bill, misshapen as it is, can also, in case of 
necessity, be used for a very different purpose from 
that of feeding ; for one of these birds, in confine- 
ment, having been accidentally deprived of a leg, 
