Alice was holding the flamingo because she was still playing the game of croquet with the Queen when the Duchess appeared and wanted to talk to her. The Duchess was talking to Alice because she is Alice's friend. She was telling her about morals and how fond she is of finding morals in things. The Duchess was talking about flamingos and mustard both bite and then the Duchess says the moral of that is Birds of a feather flock together. I think the Duchess just makes these morals up as she goes. The Queen says that a Mock Turtle is the thing that comes from Mock Turtle soup but in this case a Mock Turtle is a turtle that sits on a rock and pouts about itself all the time. A gryphon (griffin) is a fabulous beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. The griffin came from Northern Russia but the griffin wasnt a real creature it was a mythical creature that people started puting on the outside of buildings to keep away EVIL.