Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/224

Rh tame. They somewhat resemble swans in form, but have considerably longer and thinner legs, longer and thinner necks. They have small heads and large crooked bills, and make a noise like ducks, only much louder, and which becomes particularly audible when they do not receive their food at the accustomed time; and if they happen to see Madame C., they come walking after her screeching out their grievances, as if very anxious to complain to her of having been neglected. Their contempt for the hens and geese is indescribable, and the very important airs which they assume as they climb up and look down upon them, as if amazed at their presuming to come into their way, are really splendid. The hens in the meantime scuttle away from before them, as if humiliated by their transcendent greatness and by a conscious inferiority; but the fat and ponderous geese, who resemble city-dames beside Austrian Archduchesses, avenge themselves sometimes by stretching out their necks after them, and uttering a derisive cackle, which the high-bred flamingoes do not think it worth their while to notice. Such are nature's democracy. The poor, high-bred flamingoes, are however, now nearly parched up with thirst; there is, it is true, a stone-basin for them here which ought to contain water, but the continued drought has left it very nearly dry. Here, nevertheless, the flamingo pair take their morning bath with great ceremony, and when they perceive a little water on their wings, they go out upon the grass, and with great pomp and solemnity, spread out their huge wings to dry in the wind and the ascending sun. After that they take a doze standing on one leg under a casuarina-tree, with long, outstretched branches, and turn their long necks in snake-like curves over their backs. It is most amusing to see them.

Here, as everywhere else in the world, people are never satisfied with the weather which God sends them. As people often in our country long for rain, so are they