ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
5 
swan, black-necked swan, black swan ; the grey goose, 
bar-headed goose and black-backed goose; the ruddy 
sheldrake, the spotted-bill duck and the pink-headed duck, 
besides some specimens of the typical bird of Calcutta, 
the adjutant. 
The Flamingoes, which constitute one of the families of 
the Order of birds known as Grallae, a term derived from 
the Latin and meaning ‘ stilts,’ in allusion to their general¬ 
ly long legs, are common to the Old and New Worlds ; 
four species occurring in each of these great sections of 
our globe. Their structure is remarkable on account 
of the great elongation of the neck and limbs, and the 
peculiar formation of the beak. 
In all the Mammalia, that Order of animals which suckle 
their young, the bones which form the neck, however long 
and flexible it may be, are always seven in number, with 
only one or two exceptions, for example, the three-toed 
Sloths of South America, in which the cervical vertebrae are 
nine in number ; but in birds no such uniformity prevails, 
and the neck-bones (cervical vertebrae) may vary from eight 
to twenty-three, being never fewer than eight. In the 
flamingoes they number seventeen. 
The peculiarity of the bill of the flamingo is the re¬ 
markable way in which it is downwardly bent at its 
middle. Like the bill of a duck its margins are provided 
with a series of lamellae, which enables the bird to sift 
the food from the mud as through a strainer. In the early 
morning one may observe the flamingo with its head 
immersed in the tank, treading the bottom with its feet 
to loosen the mud, and sifting it backwards owing to the 
downward direction of the bill ; and it can keep its head 
in this position for a considerable time. In the great 
