Reptiles and Birds: A Popular Account of Their Various Orders, With a Description of the Habits and Economy of the Most InterestingFiguier, Louis
Science
Reptiles and Birds: A Popular Account of Their Various Orders, With a Description of the Habits and Economy of the Most Interesting
Figuier, Louis
Birds; Reptiles
Some authors have asserted that the Flamingo makes use of its long neck
as a third leg, walking with its head resting on the ground like a
foot. The fact that has doubtless given rise to this supposition is the
position of the neck, necessitated by its peculiar method of seeking
food. We are told, it is true, about a Flamingo reared in captivity
which, being accidentally deprived of one of its limbs, found out a
remedy for its infirmity by walking on one leg and helping itself along
by means of its bill, using the latter as a crutch; the master of the
bird, noticing this, fitted it with a wooden leg, which it used with the
greatest success. But this story, which applies very well to a
domesticated bird which was maimed, and consequently under peculiar
conditions, in no way invalidates our former observations.
The Flamingo makes itself a nest which is as original as its own
personal appearance. It consists of a truncated cone, about twenty
inches in height, and formed of mud dried in the sun. At the summit of
this little hillock it hollows out a shallow cavity, in which the female
lays two eggs, rather elongated in shape and of a dead white colour.
When she is incubating them she sits astride on this novel description
of throne, with her legs hanging down on each side. The young ones run
about very soon after they are hatched, but it is some time before they
are able to fly--not, indeed, until they are clothed with their full
plumage. At two years old they assume the more brilliant colours of the
adult bird.
The Flamingo is found in all the warm and temperate regions of the
globe. On certain islands off the American continent they exist in such
numbers, that navigators have given them the name of the Flamingo
Islands. In the Old World they are found spread over a region below the
fortieth degree of latitude, principally in Egypt and the Nile
tributaries: during the summer they seek a cooler climate, and they are
then seen in numerous flocks on the southern coasts of France. The
height of these magnificent birds reaches to about five feet; when they
are flying, in the peculiar formation common to most aquatic birds, with
the neck stretched out and the legs sticking out behind, they look, in
the clear sky, like gigantic triangles of fire. The spectacle they then
present is at once beautiful and wonderful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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