is light and tolerably rapid, the quick strokes of its wings producing a noise not unlike that which accompanies the flight of Ducks and Wild Geese, indeed, the sound made by the rising of a whole flock has been compared to distant thunder. When fairly on the wing a flying Flamingo could not be mistaken for any other bird, even by the most unpractised novice. Unlike the generality of long-necked birds, it stretches not only its long legs, but its neck straight out, thus presenting an appearance of extraordinary length and slenderness; so that, with its narrow wings exactly in the centre, it assumes pretty much the shape of a cross. When flying together in considerable numbers, the flock, as we have already said, arrange themselves in regular phalanx, either in one long line, or in a wedge-shape like that of the letter V. When descending from a great height, their flight assumes a spiral direction, but just before alighting they sweep forward for a little distance over the water until they find a suitable spot whereon to settle. The loud harsh voice of these birds somewhat resembles that of a Goose. The food of the Flamingo consists principally of water-snails, worms, crustaceans and small fishes, but it by no means despises vegetable substances, and in a state of captivity will eat boiled rice, corn, or soaked bread. Our information concerning the breeding of these birds is not very satisfactory. Labat many years ago gave a very strange description of their mode of incubation, which was subsequently contradicted by Dampier; and later writers have contented themselves with copying these accounts without ascertaining their accuracy. Dampier informs us that "the Flamingoes build their nests where plenty of dirt is procurable. This dirt they rake together by means of their feet, so as to form a hillock, which stands like a little island, a foot and a half above the water, each hillock being of a conical shape, and having a depression at the top, on which the nest is placed." Labat states that the hillocks are solid, as high as the surface of the water, but that above this point they are hollowed like a basin, and that when the birds lay or incubate their eggs, they place themselves upright, not upon the hillock, but close to it, with their feet upon the ground, in such a manner, that leaning against the hillock they cover the nest with their tail. Naumann in the strongest terms refuses to believe either of the above accounts, and from our own observations on the living birds we ourselves quite acquiesce in the doubts he expresses. It is true we have never seen a Flamingo actually engaged in incubating; but at Mensala, in Egypt, where we obtained a full-grown egg from the oviduct of a dead female, we procured the following information concerning the mode of incubation. The Flamingo makes her nest in shallow places in the water, or, as the Arabs assert, upon flat insular spots, overgrown with low vegetation.