QUEST OF THE FIREBIRDS 253 



of vegetation in a liquid world. Nestling between these was a 

 long thin line of pink— the flamingos at last! Forgetting my 

 weariness, I left Mary and the donkeys on the nearest island 

 to make camp and waded into the lake before it became too 

 dark to see. The water was quite shallow, reaching about to 

 the knees, and the bottom was composed of loose sand and hard 

 rock. Crawling over the lake floor were millions of Ceritheum, 

 enough to feed a hundred thousand flamingos. 



Soon the pink line became more clear. For nearly a mile 

 it stretched out; the flock must have numbered about a thou- 

 sand birds. Before long I could hear them, a queer sound like 

 the gabbling of geese, with which were mingled the cries of a 

 dozen other species of birds. Flocks of laughing gulls, clean in 

 their black and white plumage, swept over my head, screech- 

 ing in raucous chorus; pelicans dived headlong for fish, mak- 

 ing tremendous splashes as they hit; graceful terns wheeled and 

 uttered their plaintive calls; sandpipers stood in droves along 

 the shallows and made the air musical with their twittering 

 and whistling. Pure white egrets and the more somber bodies 

 of herons stalked all about and dozens of ducks paddled like 

 fleets of boats over the surface. 



But it was the flamingos that held the center of the picture. 

 Through my binoculars I could see them stalking about, dip- 

 ping their queer shovel-bills in the water, scooping up the 

 Ceritheums as they moved. Their gorgeous color made them 

 stand out above everything else. Pure pink of the most deli- 

 cate hue, the color changed with the light. While I watched, 

 the sun faded behind a cloud and the pink suddenly altered to 

 scarlet, to vermilion and finally to a seething line of bloody 

 red against a background of pale blue sky and green water. 



The sentinels of the flock saw me coming. The gabbling 

 noise increased and the red line began to shift. I moved closer. 

 Every head was in the air, watching, and nervously the fla- 



