Identifier: reptilesbirds00figu (find matches)
Title: Reptiles and birds : a popular account of their various orders, with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894 Gillmore, Parker
Subjects: Reptiles Birds
Publisher: London : Cassell & Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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rd, noticing this, fitted it with a wooden leg, which it used with thegreatest success. But this story, v/hich applies very well to a domes-ticated bird which was maimed, and consequently under peculiar con-ditions, in no way invalidates our former observations. The Flamingo makes itself a nest which is as original as its ownpersonal appearance. It consists of a truncated cone, about twentyinches in height, and formed of mud dried in the sun. At thesummit of this little hillock it hollows out a shallow cavity, in whichthe female lays two eggs, rather elongated in shape, and of a deadwhite colour. When she is incubating she sits astride on this novel K 258 REPTILES AND BIRDS. description of throne, with her legs hanging down on each side.The young ones run about very soon after they are hatched, but it issome time before they are able to fly—not, indeed, until they areclothed with their full plumage. At two years old they assume themore briUiant colours of the adult bird. \^§^^ x-^l
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Fig. 95. —Flamingoes. The Flamingo is found in all the warm and temperate regions ofthe globe. On certain islands ott the American continent they existin such numbers that navigators have given them the name of theFlamingo Islands. In the Old World they are found spread over aregion below the fortieth degree of latitude, principally in Egypt andthe Nile tributaries ; during the summer they seek a cooler climate,and they are then seen in numerous flecks on the southern coastsof France. The height of these magnificent birds reaches to about THE FRIGATE BIRD. 259 five feet; when they are flying, in the peculiar formation commonto most aquatic birds, with the neck stretched out and the legs pro-jecting behind, they look, in the clear sky, like gigantic triangles of fire.The ancients greedily sought after the flesh of the Flamingo, whichthey regarded as the most choice food. The tongue especially wasthought to be an exquisite dainty, and the Emperor HeHogabalusappreciated it so highly th

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