Abstract
THE flamingo in the gardens of the Zoological Society has recently been observed to vomit a red-coloured fluid over certain smaller birds kept with it; and it has been shown that this red fluid contains true blood-corpuscles, and inferred that the flamingo is in the habit of feeding its young by this ejection of a blood-stained “pigeon's milk” into their mouths. Further, the habit of the flamingo has been with great probability connected with the story of the pelican, which, as is well known, is stated to wound its own breast in order to feed its young with the blood. It is not at all improbable that birds so alike in their plumage and habitat as the pelican and flamingo should be confused in the way suggested by Mr. Bartlett, who, I believe, first observed the habit of the captive flamingo. The extravasation of blood corpuscles normally from the pharynx or œsophagus of such an animal is a matter of great interest. Mr. Lowne has a paper in the Journal of the Queckett Microscopical Club, in which he gives a full account of the case, having examined the bloody exudation microscopically. To this the reader is referred; but I have something to add to it.
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LANKESTER, E. The Origin of Blood-Letting . Nature 1, 76–77 (1869). https://doi.org/10.1038/001076a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001076a0
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