FLAMINGOS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 937, 2 April 1930, Page 14

FLAMINGOS

There is no other bird on the African continent that will delight the eye of the traveller, or lend itself to. the camera or brush of an artist more effectively than the flamingo. The plumage is exquisitely beautiful. The long neck and body feathers of an adult bird shade from a pale pink to a rosy hue. The curiously shaped beak is scarlet and purple, and the long slender legs, which seem so inadequate for the weight of the excessively fat body, are deep pink, with a blending of purple and scarlet. This remarkable colouring penetrates even the bones and the marrow of the legs. The feathers under their blackpinioned wings are crimson, and the same lovely colour tips the wingcoverts on the upper side of the wings. There is a great contrast between the adult and the young birds. The latter are a greyish white, which changes to pink as the bird matures. Like ducks and geese, the flamingo are extremely clannish, and congregate in immense flocks. They often form into units, and follow a leader on a tour of the neighbouring lakes There is nothing in the bird world" more ludicrous than a flock of frightened flamingos. They kronk and hiss and crowd one another like a panicky mob of human beings. When preparlng for flight their ungainly movements remind one of an overloaded airpiane trying to take off on a rough «£•**£* long necks in front of them, they beat the water with their wings as they gallop clumsily for a short distance over the mud. When they have gained sufficient momentum to raise their weight in the air the neck and legs are quickly thrust ou> in a straight line with the body. It their black pinions are spread, that the crimson wing-feathers are exposed and flash in the sunlight with each graceful sweep of their wings.