6 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to alight in a lagoon bordering the western side of the rookery. " A 

 short time later they rose again and "with harsh honkings bore down 

 upon him. The birds in close array came toward him without a 

 waver, and for a few moments one might well have believed they 

 were about to attack; but with a mighty roar of wings and clanging 

 of horns, they passed overhead, turned, and on set wings again shot 

 back to the lagoon." The next day, when he was finally settled in 

 his blind, they twice rose in a body and swept over the rookery to 

 reconnoiter, and then: 



Without further delay, the birds returned to their homes. They came on foot 

 a great red cohort, marching steadily toward me. I felt like a spy in an enemy's 

 camp. Might not at least one pair of the nearly 4,000 eyes detect something 

 unnatural in the newly-grown bush almost within their city gates? No sign of 

 alarm, however, was shown; without confusing, and as if trained to the evolu- 

 tion, the birds advanced with stately tread to their nests. There was a bowing 

 of a forest of slender necks as each bird lightly touched its egg or nest with its 

 bill; then, all talking loudly, they stood up on their nests; the black wings were 

 waved for a moment, and bird after bird dropped forward on its egg. After a vig- 

 orous wriggling motion, designed evidently to bring the egg into close contact with 

 the skin, the body was still, but the long neck and head were for a time in constant 

 motion, preening, picking material at the base of the nest, dabbling in a near-h^y 

 puddle, or perhaps drinking from it. Occasionally a bird sparred with one of the 

 three or four neighbors which were within reach, when, bill grasping bill, there 

 ensued a brief and harmless test of strength. 



The American flamingo also breeds in the Galapagos Islands. Here 

 according to Edward W. Gifford (1913), "the nests are always built 

 near the water, either on some very low, flat, rocky islet or on a beach." 

 Evidently the nests in this region "are not endangered to any great 

 extent by the rise of the water, " and are therefore built much lower. 

 Most of the nests were from 4 to 8 inches high, none were higher 

 than 12 inches and one "egg was laid on a level bit of lava rock," 

 with mud an inch deep scraped around it. 



Eijgs. — The flamingo lays ordinarily only one egg or raises only a 

 single young bird in a season ; two or even three eggs have been found 

 in a nest. The egg is from elliptical ovate to elongate ovate in shape. 

 It is always somewhat rough and chalky, and sometimes very rough 

 with a lumpy surface and with deep scratches. It is dull white, dirty 

 white, or rarely pinkish white in color. The measurements of 41 eggs 

 average 91.3 by 55.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 99 by 54; 96.5 by 59.4; 85 by 55.5; and 96.1 by 51.9 milli- 

 meters. 



Young. — The period of incubation does not seem to have been defi- 

 nitely determined for the American bird, but William Evans (1891) 

 gives it as 30 to 32 days for a closely related foreign species. Incu- 

 bation is performed by both sexes. Doctor Chapman (1905) says: 



The birds changed places early in the morning and late in the afternoon. 

 They left or returned to the rookery singly or in flocks containing as many as 



