of reeds, and a troop of large birds rose on the wing with a loud
noise. Fritz let fly at them, and brought down two at a shot. One of
them fell quite dead, but its mate, though hurt in the wing, made use
of its long legs so well that it would have got off if Bill had not
held it. The joy of Fritz, to have caught such a strange bird, was so
great that he would have us at once bind it by the neck and take it
back with us. "Look," said Ernest, "what fine plumes he has, and you
see he has web feet like a goose, and has long legs like a stork: thus
he can run on land as fast as he can swim."

"Yes," said I, "and he can fly with more speed through the air, for
these birds have great strength in their wings. In fact, few birds have
such means of flight as the FLA-MIN-GO."

My wife thought the great bird might need more food than we could
spare. I told her that it would feed on small fish and worms, and not
rob our geese of their grain. I then tied him to a stake near the
stream; and in a few days we were glad to find that he knew us, and
would come at a call, like a tame bird.

While I sat on the grass with my sons, late in the day, I thought I
would try to make a bow and thus save our shot. This I did with a long
cane and a piece of string, and then made a dart with a sharp point,
which I shot off and found it would go straight. The branch of the tree
on which we were to fix our hut was so high that our steps would not
near reach it. I tied some strong thread to the dart, and shot it over
the branch; then tied a piece of rope to the end of the thread, and
drew that up, and at last made a long row of cane steps, with a rope at
each side, which we drew up to the first strong branch. The boys were
now all in haste to climb the tree, but I chose that Jack, who was