Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-09-15
The FlamingO.

The fiamingo is beautiful inhabitant
of all marshy regions in the tropics.
1t is found in great numbers in South
America and the West Indies, and in
Africa, Southern Asia and China. 1t
is bird of wondrous beauty. 1t has a
slender. gracefully formed body. long.
thin legs, and very long, flexible
neck. When its stands erect, its neck
stretched in the air, its head is fully six
feet from the ground.
The feathers on the body of the fla
mingo are white, delicately tinted with
rose-color. Its wings, which are very
large, are of the most brilliant scarlet,
and the long quilts are black. 1t is a
very sociable bird, and is always seen
in tiocks of several hundred. The APP
pearance of a flock of tamingoes, as
described by travellers. is one of start
ing magnificence. Seen from afar,
wading or swimming in the inlets of
salt marshes the lamingo loves
best to keep near the sea-coast-one
would think that an immense army of
relocated soldiers was encamped
there, instead of flock of harmless,
defenseless birds. In South America
the tiamingo is called ''the soldier
bird by the natives, and Humboldt,
the great German traveller and natural
list, relates a very amusing story, which
he gives as an actual occurrence, Illus
trating the fitness of this name. A
new township of Angostura had been
formed; but the inhabitants were
scarcely settled in their new homes
when, one morning, wild cry of alarm
spread through the little village that
an immense body of men in red gar
ments, probably hostile Indians, was
advancing. Such weapons as were at
hand were hastily seized, and all the
men rushed out to defend their homes.
Suddenly the supposed hostile army
rose in the air, and, forming a long
line of flashing scarlet against the clear
blue sky, took its course in the direc-
ton of the great salt-marshes around the
mouth of the Orinoco.
Naturalists have encountered great
difficulty in their attempts to study the
habits of the famingo in its native
haunts, for it is very shy and cautious
bird, and no flock is ever found without
a sentinel posted to give notice of the
approach of danger. This is usually
the largest, and, probably, the oldest
and wisest, bird of the flock. At the
least sound it lifts its large head as high
in the air as the long neck will allow,
and looks about on every side. II any
boat or hunter is seen, the whole flock,
with loud screenings, instantly van
ishes among the tall water grasses.
When the famingo sleeps it draws
one leg up among its breast feathers
and, bending its neck backward, rests
its head on the middle of its back, with
the beak erect in the air or buried in
its wing, 1t is graceful, rapid SWIM
mer and flies easily, stretching its long
neck before and its legs behind, like
the crane and stork. Its nest is de-
scribed by those naturalists who have
been fortunate enough to see 1t as an
immense heap of mud and water grasses
in the depths of some solitary swamp.
where the mother bird broods patiently
for thirty days on her two glistening
white eggs. When the little ones are
Matched they take to the water immedi-
ately and swim about as lively as young
ducks; but they are not strong enough
to fly for some months, and not until
they are three years old do they attain
the full magnificence of their scarlet
plumage.
The harmless and peaceful famingo
has many enemies besides man. Beasts
of prey are prowling abroad at night
and pounce upon these birds while they
are sleeping in their marshy homes. In
the great South American swamps the
ocelot is one of its most formidable
foes. The ocelOt is e very small mem
Der of the panther family, and is found
in Mexico and all through the American
tropics. 1t is atawny-colored creature.
covered with glistening black mark
ings. 1t has the same habits as other
members of its family, spending the
day asleep in some secluded thicket,
and roaming the forests at night and
early dawn in search of birds and small
animals. -HarpeT's Young People.