It Was All Like An English Meadow In June, When Every
Grass And Every Herb Is In Flower, Beautiful And Fragrant, But Tiring
To A Boy Six Years Old To Walk Through.
At last we came out to a
smooth grass turf, and in a little while were by the stream, which had
overflowed its banks owing to recent heavy rains and was now about
fifty yards wide.
An astonishing number of birds were visible - chiefly
wild duck, a few swans, and many waders-ibises, herons, spoonbills,
and others, but the most wonderful of all were three immensely tall
white-and-rose-coloured birds, wading solemnly in a row a yard or so
apart from one another some twenty yards out from the bank. I was
amazed and enchanted at the sight, and my delight was intensified when
the leading bird stood still and, raising his head and long neck
aloft, opened and shook his wings. For the wings when open were of a
glorious crimson colour, and the bird was to me the most angel-like
creature on earth.
What were these wonderful birds? I asked of my brothers, but they
could not tell me. They said they had never seen birds like them
before, and later I found that the flamingo was not known in our
neighbourhood as the water-courses were not large enough for it, but
that it could be seen in flocks at a lake less than a day's journey
from our home.
It was not for several years that I had an opportunity of seeing the
bird again; later I have seen it scores and hundreds of times, at rest
or flying, at all times of the day and in all states of the
atmosphere, in all its most beautiful aspects, as when at sunset or in
the early morning it stands motionless in the still water with its
clear image reflected below; or when seen flying in flocks - seen from
some high bank beneath one - moving low over the blue water in a long
crimson line or half moon, the birds at equal distances apart, their
wing-tips all but touching; but the delight in these spectacles has
never equalled in degree that which I experienced on this occasion
when I was six years old.
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