same materials. Willoughby tells us, that in a certain grove at a village called Seven Huys, near Leyden, they build and breed yearly in great numbers. In this grove, also, the heron, the bittern, the cormorant, and the shag, have taken up their residence, and annually bring forth their young together. Here the crane kind seem to have formed their general rendezvous; and, as the inhabitants say, every sort of bird has its several quarter, where none but their own tribe are permitted to reside. Of this grove the peasants of the country make good profit. When the young ones are ripe, those that farm the grove, with a hook at the end of a long pole, catch hold of the bough on which the nest is built, and shake out the young ones; but sometimes the nest and all tumble down together.

The shoveler lays from three to five eggs, white, and powdered with a few sanguine or pale spots. We sometimes see in the cabinets of the curious the bills of American shovelers, twice as big and as long as those. of the common kind among us, but these birds have not yet made their way into Europe.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FLAMINGO.

THE Flamingo has the justest right to be placed among cranes; and though it happens to be webfooted, like birds of the goose kind, yet its height, figure, and appetites, entirely remove it from that groveling class of animals. With a longer neck and legs than any other of the crane kind, it seeks its food by wading among waters; and only differs from all of this tribe in the manner of seizing its prey;

for as the heron makes use of its claws, the flamingo uses only its bill, which is strong and thick for the purpose, the claws being useless, as they are feeble, and webbed like those of water fowl.

The flamingo is the most remarkable of all the crane kind, the tallest, bulkiest, and the most beautiful. The body, which is of a beautiful scarlet, is no bigger than that of a swan; but its legs and neck are of such an extraordinary length, that when it stands erect it is six feet six inches high. Its wings extended, are five feet six inches from tip to tip; and it is four feet eight inches from tip to tail. The head is round and small, with a large bill, seven inches long, partly red, partly black, and crooked like a bow. The legs and thighs, which are not much thicker than a man's finger, are about two feet eight inches high, and its neck near three feet long. The feet are not furnished with sharp claws, as in others of the crane kind, but feeble, and united by membranes as in those of the goose. Of what use these membranes are does not appear, as the bird is never seen swimming, its legs and thighs being sufficient for bearing it into those depths where it seeks for prey.

This extraordinary bird is now chiefly found in America, but it was once known on all the coasts of Europe. Its beauty, its size, and the peculiar delicacy of its flesh, have been such temptations to destroy or take it, that it has long since deserted the shores frequented by nian, and taken refuge in countries that are as yet but thinly peopled. In those desert regions the flamingos live in a state of society, and under a better polity than any other of the feathered creation.

When the Europeans first came to America, and coasted down along the African shores, they found the flamingos on several shores on either continent,

gentle, and no way distrustful of mankind.* They had long been used to security in the extensive solitudes they had chosen, and knew no enemies, but those they could very well evade or oppose. The Negroes and the native Americans were possessed but of few destructive arts for killing them at a distance, and when the bird perceived the arrow, it well knew how to avoid it. But it was otherwise when the Europeans first came among them: the sailors, not considering that the dread of fire-arms was totally unknown in that part of the world, gave the flamingo the character of a foolish bird, that suffered itself to be approached and shot at. When the fowler had killed one, the rest of the flock, far from attempting to fly, only regarded the fall of their companion in a kind of fixed astonishment: another and another shot was discharged; and thus the fowler often levelled the whole flock, before one of them began to think of escaping.

But at present it is very different in that part of the world; and the flamingo is not only one of the scarcest, but of the shyest birds in the world, and the most difficult of approach. They chiefly keep near the most deserted and inhospitable shores; near salt water lakes and swampy islands. They come down to the banks of rivers by day; and often retire to the inland mountainous parts of the country at the approach of night. When seen by mariners in the day, they always appear drawn up in a long close line of two or three hundred together; and, as Dampier tells us, present, at the distance of half a mile, the exact representation of a long brick wall. Their rank, however, is broken when they seek for food; but they always appoint one of the number as a watch, whose only employment is to observe and give notice of danger, while the rest are feeding. As. Albin's New History of Birds.

VOL. IV.C