26o I N A G U A 



although a few small flocks flew overhead as if reconnoiteiing. 

 The next day I tried to get some pictures of the few flamingos 

 that remained but the wind became so violent that my make- 

 shift boat blind was shredded apart and the fluttering cover 

 only served to alarm the birds so that they would not ap- 

 proach. That night complete disaster overtook the struggling 

 colony, for the waves broke over the heaped-up nests and 

 washed the shells into the water where they drifted away. 



Flamingos build their turreted nests to safeguard against 

 this very eventuality but their breeding colonies are always 

 subject to flood and are located in places where the change of 

 water level may vary overnight. An extremely heavy rain may 

 destroy a colony of a thousand nests in a few hours, or an 

 extremely brisk wind blowing a great mass of water in one 

 direction, as happened in this case, may cover nests that would 

 normally would be quite safe. 



A completely empty lake greeted my eyes the next day. 

 In every direction there was nothing but green water and blue 

 sky. There was no indication where the flock had gone; a 

 more lifeless landscape would be difficult to imagine. The 

 prospect of setting off once again in that waste of shoal water 

 was not very encouraging. As I had done several times before 

 on Inagua I asked myself what the impelling force was which 

 led me on and on under the most uncomfortable conditions. 

 In the incident of the exploration of the island it was pure 

 curiosity, coupled with a sense of duty to salvage something 

 out of the fiasco of the expedition. In the case of the flamingos 

 it was a desire for beauty, nothing else, for I was no longer 

 bound to duty. Beauty and discomfort do not always go hand 

 in hand, but the flamingos of Inagua Island are one of the 

 world's truly grand and inexpressibly lovely spectacles. If 

 the great flock of this island were readily available to the 

 people of the earth so that it might be reached without having 



