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WE MOVE TO THE FOREST 87 |
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I have seen the flamingo in my Natural History, and the colours were not like these.'
I believe that the plumage is differently coloured according to the age of the birds,' I told him. ' When very young they are gray; then they turn white; and it is only when they are full grown that they are adorned with this beautiful tinted plumage.'
Talking like this, we returned to our camp laden with bundles of canes of various sizes, and with the dead and living birds. We were greeted with the delight that a new discovery never failed to bring; only my wife, with her usual anxiety about ways and means, asked where we should get food enough for all the new animals we brought home ?
I told her I expected this acquisition would soon be able to feed himself; and I proceeded to examine his wound. I found that only one wing was injured by the shot, but that the other had also been slightly hurt by the dog laying hold of him. I rubbed some ointment on both, and this seemed to relieve him. I next tied him by one of his legs with a long string to a stake I had driven into the ground quite near to the river, that he might go in and wash himself when he liked.
Now I had begun to think seriously of the diflft culty of getting a rope ladder to reach even the |
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