IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 91 
Nowadays we think Flamingo meat has a marshy taste, and we 
prefer ducks and turkeys for our tables. So he is hunted only for 
his beauty, to adorn museums and bird collections. 
He is called Flamingo from his bright color, but he is said, in 
the big books, to belong to the Palmidactyle family. He has this 
graceful name merely because his three front toes are united by a 
wide skin — something as a duck's toes are — and his one hind toe 
is very small or absent entirely. 
