picion attaches to a Flamingo captured in Staffordshire,
respecting which Sir John H. Crewe, Bart., informs the
Editor that the bird was seen for a week or so on his property
in the northern part of the county, quite early in
September 1881. At that time it was probably completing
the moult of its primaries and rectrices ; for, having crossed
the river Manifold to another property, it was stoned and
captured by some youths, who took it to the owner of the
land, by whom it was kept alive for a few- days and then
killed. The specimen was a richly-coloured adult, and still
exists, although very badly stuffed. Sir John adds that he
made all inquiry he could at the time, at the Zoological
Gardens, and other likely places, without being able to hear
of the escape of any bird of this species.
In * The Zoologist’ for 1884 (p. 338), the following
particulars are given by Lord Henry Scott respecting a
Flamingo shot in Hampshire :— I have referred back to
my journal, and find that the Flamingo was shot on the
26th of November, 1883. It had been flying about on
the mud banks outside the Beaulieu river for a fortnight
previously, and many people had gone out to try to shoot
it. It was very wild and wary, and no one had been able to
get within gunshot of it, as it was able to fly extremely well,
and never allowed any boat to approach near enough to it.
The coast-guardsmen frequently shot at it with their rifles.
When I heard that the bird was being thus shot at, and had
been at the mouth of the river so long, I sent a keeper of
mine (a naval pensioner and a capital hand with the punt-
gun) in the gunning-punt to try and get the bird for me.
In this he succeeded, but was not able to get nearer than
about 120 yards. He was laying the punt-gun on the bird
at about that distance, hoping he might get nearer and shoot
it with the slioulder-gun, when the Flamingo, being on the
alert and very wild, rose on the wing, and my keeper Goff
fired the punt-gun at it and brought it down with three
shots through it. The bird is a very fine grown one,
quite pink all over, and with a good scarlet wing. There
was nothing to show that it could have been in captivity,
for its wings were quite perfect, and it was extremely wild
and could fly well, taking long flights. I cannot remember
much about the weather previous to the bird being seen off
the Beaulieu river, for I only returned home on the 20th
from Scotland ; but there had been a great gale from the
south-west about a fortnight before, and it is my belief that
the Flamingo had been blown by this gale to the British
shores. Whether it came from North Africa or from the
south of France (mouth of the Rhone) it is impossible to
tell ; but that the bird was a wild one, and had been blown
to England by stress of weather, I have no doubt.” In this
case again there appears to be no evidence that the bird had
escaped from confinement.
Lastly, Capt. G. E. Shelley informs the Editor, that on
the 12th August, 1884, when waiting for the evening flights
of Curlews, near New Romney, an adult Flamingo flew past
with outstretched neck and legs, in a south-easterly direction,
its red wings and black primaries showing clearly in
the light of the setting sun ; and his two nephews, who
put the bird up, told him that they got within about fifty
yards of it while it was feeding by the sea amongst a flock
of Gulls.
As already stated, the Flamingo is an animal visitor to the
salt-marshes and brackish lagoons of the south of France ;
and M. Roussillon, who has taken hundreds of eggs at the
mouth of the Rhone, informs the Editor that in some years
from one to two thousand arrive to make their nests on the
margins of the étangs; they do not, however, nest in the
same place every year, the amount of water influencing their
choice of site ; and they suffer much from persecution. The
same may be said of similar localities at the mouth of the
Guadalquivir in the south of Spain ; and Prof. Giglioli
believes that a few pairs breed from time to time on the
lagoons of the Island of Sardinia, where numbers are found
in winter. The species occurs in suitable places throughout
the basin of the Mediterranean ; its range extending from
the Canaries and the Cape Verd Islands on the west, across
Africa and Asia to Lake Baikal. Southwards it can be