LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 



ORDERS ODONTOGLOSSAE, HERODIONES, AND PALUDICOLAE 



By Arthur Cleveland Bent, 



of Taunton, Massachusetts 



Order ODONTOGLOSSAE. Lamellirostral Grallatores 

 Family PHOENICOPTERIDAE, Flamingoes 



PHOENICOPTERUS RUBER Linnaeus 



AMERICAN FLAMINGO 



HABITS 



I have never been privileged to see this gorgeous bird in its nat- 

 ural surroundings. But, having visited some of its former haunts in 

 southern Florida, it is not difficult to picture in imagination the thrill 

 of pleasure which others have enjoyed in their first sight of even a 

 distant flock of these magnificent birds, perhaps a mile or more away 

 across a broad, flat, shimmering waste of whitish marl, a glowing 

 band of brilliant pink against a background of dark -green mangroves. 

 It has always been a shy species, as even the earliest writers refer to 

 the difficulty of approaching it in the open situations where it loves 

 to congregate, to feed in the shallow muddy waters, and where its sen- 

 tinels are always on the alert. Its favorite haunts are far from civ- 

 ilization, for it shuns human society and is soon driven away from 

 much-frequented places to live its even, quiet life in the remote wil- 

 derness of the broad, shallow, muddy bays or estuaries of our tropical 

 coasts. Dr. Frank M. Chapman (1908) describes it very well when 

 he says: 



There are larger birds than the flamingo, and birds with more brilliant plumage 

 but no other large bird is so brightly colored and no other brightly colored bird is 

 so large. In brief, size and beauty of plume united, reach their maximum of 

 development in this remarkable bird, while the open nature of its haunts and its 

 gregariousness seem specially designed to display its marked characteristics of 

 form and color to the most striking advantage. 



1 



