One of these birds was worshiped by the Egyptians of old, who treated it with the greatest reverence during life, and carefully embalmed its body when it died. For this reason it is known as the sacred ibis, and in every large art museum you may see ibis mummies, which were taken from the tombs of the kings. In color this bird is snowy white, with a black head and neck, and long black plumes on the hinder part of the back. You may generally see it in a zoo, together with the beautiful scarlet ibis, whose plumage is bright red in color, with black tips to the wings. CHAPTER XXVI SWIMMING BIRDS In the birds belonging to this group the feet are webbed, so that they may be used as paddles. And some of them are very curious indeed. FLAMINGO First of all, there is the well-known red and white flamingo, which is quite an extraordinary bird, for it has extremely long, stilt-like legs, and an extremely long, snake-like neck, which it can twist and coil about as easily as if it were just a piece of rope. There is no part of its body which a flamingo cannot reach with its beak, so that it can preen its feathers quite easily. And when it wants to feed it wades into the water, bends down its long neck, turns its head upside down, so that its forehead rests upon the bottom, and scoops up great mouthfuls of mud. Then, by means of the grooves at the sides of the bill, it gets rid of the mud, while all the grubs, etc., which were lying buried in it, are left behind to be swallowed. The nest of the flamingo is a cone-shaped heap of mud, sometimes as much as two feet high, with a little hollow at the top to contain eggs. Thousands of these birds nest together, and when they are sitting they look just like a great rosy-white cloud resting upon the ground. And if they are startled and fly away, their nests look as though hundreds of children had been making big sand-pies on the beach and neatly arranging them in rows. But such a sight as this can now be seen only in some almost inaccessible tropical islands, for these birds have been greatly persecuted by feather-hunters and others, and are rare everywhere near civilization. They used to be common in Florida and all about the Gulf of Mexico, where now only a few exist. Flamingoes are found in the warmer parts of all the great continents except Australia. Nine different kinds are known, some of which stand well over six feet in height. GEESE, SWANS, AND DUCKS Of wild geese there are at least forty species, which are found in almost all parts of the world.