Marvels of the Universe 619 
but a short time after. I once took a young roach with two parasites attached, which remained so 
during twenty-five days. They may often be captured in the free state by using a fine net in ponds 
or canals where sticklebacks congregate, and there is no doubt that they also pass the winter in the 
adult state. A case has been recorded of the capture of three Arguli in the Farde Channel, thus 
showing that they will live in salt water. These presumably had been conveyed to sea by the 
medium of some fresh-water fish. 
Their average length of life is probably over six months, and I have kept several such under 
observation. They are frequently victims of a filamentous fungoid disease, from which their hosts 
also suffer, and from their earliest stages are occasionally found to accommodate colonies of the 
well-known Vorticellz, or bell-animalcules. 
FLAMINGOES 
BY SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G. 
THESE beautiful birds are considered to be related distantly to the geese and ducks and screamers 
on the one hand, and to the ibises and storks on the other. In the opinion of the late Professor 
Garrod they also show some affinity to the bustards and thick-knees. It is certainly curious that 
the young of the Flamingo, in their streaky brown and white plumage and in the shape and colour 
of the beak, do offer some resemblance to the stone-curlews, or thick-knees. Extinct forms living 
anciently in France and Northern Europe in which the bill was straight, the legs were shorter, and 
from «a photograph] [Kindly lent by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck. 
FLAMINGOES. 
These curious and brilliant birds have been photographed standing on the frozen snow in Mr. Carl Hagenbeck’s Animal 
Park. Flamingoes once frequented England, and it was only the ruthless destruction of their kind that drove them away from 
our fens. 
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