PLUMAGE OF FLAMINGO 
As might naturally be supposed, these long legs imply a 
marsh haunting existence, and the bill is formed for 
dabbling in the mud and fishing out nutritious particles. 
In captivity the flamingoes are a very argumentative 
race, continually “‘ cawing”’ at each other, and bestow- 
ing mild pecks as the argument waxes warm. The 
strange form of the bird has given rise to legend: it has 
been asserted that the flamingo straddles over its high 
nest of mud ; but in reality it sits down to incubate like 
any other bird. The flamingo that is met with in 
Europe lacks the almost universal red of the American 
Pheemcopterus ruber. It is noteworthy that the spoon- 
bill of America is also much redder than its European 
ally. All these very red birds fade in captivity. Pos- 
sibly the diminution of brilliancy is due to the impossi- 
bility of providing them with the exact food to which 
they are accustomed in nature. This red colour is, of 
course, the source of the name of the bird, which, by the 
way, it would be far better to call by the English name 
of flammant than by the Portuguese name flamingo. 
THE SHOE-BILL (Baleniceps rex) 
This great bird, found along the Nile, and lately 
shown by Sir Harry Johnston to frequent also the 
shores of Victoria Nyanza, will very likely be on view 
in the Zoo by the time that these notes reach the reader. 
It has been once exhibited ; but that was so long ago as 
1860, when a pair were brought over by Mr. Consul 
Petherick. Their remains now grace the collection of 
animals at the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 
The shoe-bill is named on account of the shape of its 
great beak, and partly in translation of its Arabic name, 
which is Abu-Markhub, or father of a slipper. Others 
have called it the whale-headed stork ; but “ stork ”’ begs 
the question of its likenesses and unlikenesses, of which 
we shall have something to say here. The bird stands 
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