Page 71
An. 1683
The Flamingo, and its Artificial Nest.
with two more in my company have kill'd 4 of them at once; the first shot being made while they were standing on the ground, the other two as they rose. They build their Nests in shallow Ponds, where there is much Mud, which they scrape toge- ther, making little Hillocks, like small Islands, ap- pearing out of the Water, a foot and half high from the bottom. They make the foundation of these Hillocks broad, bringing them up tapering to the top, where they leave a small hollow pit to lay their Eggs in; and when they either lay their Eggs, or hatch them, they stand all the while, not on the Hillock, but close by it with their Legs on the ground and in the water, resting themselves against the Hillock, and covering the hollow Nest upon it with their Rumps: For their Legs are very long; and building thus, as they do, upon the ground, they could neither draw their Legs conveniently in- to their Nests, nor sit down upon them otherwise than by resting their whole bodies there, to the pre- judice of their Eggs or their young, were it not for this admirable contrivance which they have by na- tural instinct. They never lay more than two Eggs, and seldom fewer. The young ones cannot fly till they are almost full grown, but will run prodigiously fast; yet we have taken many of them. The Flesh of both young and old is lean and black, yet very good meat, tasting neither filthy, nor any way un- savory. Their Tongues are large, having a large knob of fat at the root, which is an excellent bit: a Dish of Flamingo's Tongues being fit for a Prince's Table.
When many of them are standing together by a Ponds side, being half a mile distant from a Man, they appear to him like a Brick Wall; their Feathers being of the colour of new red Brick: and they commonly stand upright, and single, one by one, exactly in a row (except when feeding) and close by