THIS is a very extraordinary bird. Its legs are of a great length, and so slender that at a little distance the one leg on which it usually stands is not easily seen, and the bird seems stationary in the air. It hatches its eggs, sitting astride on a nest of raised earth, as its long legs prevent its adopting any other position.

The common species, represented above, is sometimes more than six feet in height, and above four feet long from the bill to the tail. Its plumage varies in colour, according to the age of the bird. In the third year, when it is full-grown, the back is of a purple red, and the wings of a bright rose colour.

Bishop Stanley, in his account of the Flamingo, notices the "almost broken and deformed appearance of the beak," and the manner in which the creature feeds, by turning its head, and scooping up the soft substances on which it preys, using the upper mandible as a sort of spoon.

These birds were once known on the coasts of Europe, but are now chiefly found in America, and certain parts of Africa. In some of the wild and solitary tracts of America, they live in a state of society, which cannot but excite our wonder. It is said that they are always met with in flocks, and that they form in file for the purpose of fishing, having quite a soldierlike appearance. They are accustomed to establish sentinels for common safety; and whether reposing in ranks, or fishing, one of them always stands on the watch with his head erect. If any thing alarms him, he sets up a cry like the sound of a trumpet, when the flock moves off with great rapidity, but in a settled order of flight.

The ancient epicures admired the flesh of the Flamingo, especially its tongue; but the tongue is said to be oily, and of an unpleasant flavour to modern. palates. A Roman poet mentions this bird, under the name of Phoenicopterus, as a delicacy served up at the tables of the great in his day. His old English translator, for want of the word, Flamingo, quaintly styles it "the huge Crimson-wing."*

Attempts have been made to domesticate this bird, but in our climate it soon languishes and dies. One of them lost a leg by an accident, and afterwards walked with the other, using its bill and neck like a crutch.

The down of the Flamingo is useful. The Indians make bonnets of the feathers. The Sardinians form the bone of the leg into a flute.

* Holyday's Juvenal.

THIS graceful creature is one of the large tribe of Natatores, or swimming birds, and is distinguished from the rest of the family to which it belongs by the great length of its neck. There are very few birds which exceed it in size. It lives almost always upon the water, and prefers open lakes. It feeds chiefly on water-plants, which it is enabled to reach by means of its long neck; for it seldom if ever plunges its whole body beneath the surface. It also eats frogs, snails, and several kinds of insects. It is fond of bread, biscuit, and all kinds of grain, and in winter is chiefly kept on that kind of food which is given to ducks and geese. There seems good reason to suppose that it never feeds on fish. The fish-ponds to which these birds

are confined do not suffer any diminution from their presence; and Mr. Yarrell states that he has never found fish in the stomachs of any Swans which he has dissected.

When kindly treated the Swan is as gentle in its temper and habits as it is majestic and elegant in form; but when annoyed, and compelled to defend itself, it is a powerful enemy. Its large size, and vast muscular power, give it a great advantage in this case. Though it never molests the small water-fowl that inhabit its domains, it is said to have sometimes fought and repelled the eagle, when that bird has shown a disposition to disturb it. Bingley gives an account of a Swan which, while sitting on her eggs among reeds at the water's edge, saw a fox swimming towards her. She instantly darted into the water, and having kept him at bay for some time, drowned him, and then returned to her nest.

The Swan is a good mother. She builds her nest of twigs and reeds, and lines it with a comfortable coating of feathers. As soon as the young swans, which are called cygnets, are hatched, they are carried by both parents from their nest on the bank to the water, and for two or three weeks afterwards are borne upon their backs, or placed for warmth and shelter beneath their wings.

Swans are met with in a wild state in almost every country of Europe. They are birds of passage, and notwithstanding their weight and size, travel with vast speed through the air.

Black Swans are found on the western coast of New Holland, as well as in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Some fine specimens are in the gardens of the Zoological Society.

A Black Swan was among the ancients a proverbial expression for a great rarity,-a prodigy that the world seldom or never saw. This proverb has quite lost its meaning.

THE order of web-footed birds consists of those which are evidently calculated for swimming, having their toes connected with a web extending nearly to the nails; and in birds of this family we may observe the wonderful way in which different animals are fitted for their appointed modes of life. Thus the foot of a bird is so full of contrivance and fitness for its purpose, as to show the wisdom of the great Creator.

Our common tame Goose is of great service to man in various ways. It is valuable as an article of food, while its quills and feathers serve many important uses. Geese are kept in vast quantities in the fens of Lincolnshire, and are sent from thence to London, when ready for market, in droves of from 2,000 to 9,000. Persons who keep flocks of these birds in the country generally pluck them for feathers and quills four or five times in