ir habits.

The nest of the flamingo is a curious affair; usually built in a
marshy, muddy place, in the form of a mound. It is made of sticks and
grass and mud to the height of two or three feet, with a hollow in the
middle to hold the eggs. The male is said to assist in the construction
of the nest, but this is probably mere conjecture, for I think no one
living at the present time has been able to get near enough to these
birds to watch their habits, and their nests can be reached only with
great difficulty.

The female lays two white eggs about the size of those of a goose. It
is said that she sits astride the nest in an ungainly fashion, and that
the young, as soon as they are hatched, take to the water like young
ducks.

If a law only could be passed to protect these birds, what a grand
sight the waters of Florida would soon present! These great, brilliant,
scarlet birds, dallying and playing in the water, or wading near the
shore in quest of game, would be a sight never to be forgotten. Can it
be possible that Florida does not care for such glorious creatures, and
will allow, year after year, these marauders from the North to kill
them without a single protest? Unless something is done for the
protection of these splendid creatures, they must soon become extinct;
for their range is quite limited, and I fear the boy and girl readers
of ST. NICHOLAS, by the time they grow to men and women, can only read
of these as "gorgeous birds of the past."

Almost every morning, the osprey, or fish-hawk, comes in front of the
window and fishes in the shallow water near the house. He does not seem
to be as expert as the kingfisher. I have seen him dive a dozen times
or more into the water before bringing up his prey. He sails around and
around in the air; at last fixing his eyes upon a fish, he swoops down,
making the water splash around him. His feet are large and powerful,
and he arranges his long toes in the form of a scoop as he plunges into
the river; this scoop is his fishing-tackle with which he brings up his
finny food.

I think I should not like to be an osprey, for he seems to have such a
hard time to get a living, and yet he is an honest, well-disposed
laborer. After he has succeeded in catching a fish, a bald eagle often
swoops down from some tall tree, where he has been watching him, and by
main force compels this honest fisher to give up his hard-won prey. The
eagle is considerably larger than his victim, be