8 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



It is an exceedingly interesting fact that the bill of the young flamingo ig: 

 straight and wholly unlike the singular, bent bill of the adult. Signs of a Roman 

 nose, so to speak, first appear when the chick is about two weeks old, and at 

 this time he begins to feed after the manner of adults. That is, the upper 

 mandible is held almost parallel with the ground, and even pressed into the 

 muddy bottoms on which the bird feeds. It is then moved rapidly and sends 

 a jet of water through the bill which washes away the sand or mud taken in 

 with the food. Like the old bird, the young one now often treads water or 

 dances when feeding, to float its food off the bottom so that it can be more- 

 readily secured. 



The note of very young birds is a puppylike barking. This is soon followed' 

 by a kind of squealing whistle, and this, in turn, by a chirruping crow which 

 persist until the bird is at least two months old. The whistling note was the- 

 characteristic one at the time of which I write, and, under proper conditions, 

 the chorus of young birds could be plainly heard, day or night, at my tent a 

 mile away. 



Plumages. — When first hatched the young flamingo is thickly and 

 uniformly covered, except on the lores and orbital region with pure 

 white down, tinged more or less with bluish gray on the crown and 

 back. When about a month old the first coat of white down is 

 replaced by a second growth of down which is uniform ashy gray 

 in color. The juvenal plumage appears first on the scapulars and 

 sides of the breast, at an age of about five weeks. Doctor Chapman 

 (1905) describes this plumage as follows: 



The general color is grayish brown with a tinge of pink upon the underparts. 

 and wings. The feathers of the back have well-marked black shaft-streaks; the 

 tail is pale pinkish white, externally edged with blackish; the primaries are 

 black, the secondaries black internally margined with white except at the tips; 

 the primary coverts are all pinkish, blackish at the tip and on the inner vane; 

 the lesser, median, and greater coverts are generally pinkish basally, blackish 

 at the tip; the axillars are pink; the abdomen is pinkish washed with brown. 



Specimens taken in February, March, May, and July all show con- 

 tinuous molt from the juvenal into an older plumage which is unmis- 

 takably immature. This transition plumage might be called the 

 first winter or the first nuptial plumage, for it covers both seasons,, 

 but it represents a constantly changing progress toward maturity. 

 The head, neck, and mantle become gradually suffused with pale sal- 

 mon pink, by the growth of new feathers, apparantly working from 

 the head do^vnward and beginning in December. The primary-cov- 

 erts and the lesser wing-coverts are molted during the early spring 

 and the median coverts a little later; but the juvenal greater wing- 

 coverts and scapulars are apparently retained until July. Many of 

 the new pink feathers in the coverts, particularly the larger feathers, 

 have dusky shaft-streaks or dusky tips. The underparts gradually 

 i)ecome pinker (hiring spring By July the .voung bird is mostly pale 

 pink except for the juvenal greater wing-coverts, the dusky shaft- 

 streaks and the dusky tips on the scapulars. 



