THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Under the best circumstances, the task of getting these nests 

 whole to our schooner, not to mention the Museum, was one of 

 unusual difficulty. The largest I attempted to take measured 

 1 8 inches in diameter at the bottom, 13 at the top, 9 inches in 

 height and weighed upward of one hundred pounds. One solid 

 iTiass of mud and dried only externally, it needed but a slight 

 jar to break the strongest of these nests into fragments, so that 

 there seemed but slight prospect of any specimens reaching 

 New York in safety. 



Our negro boatmen were not accustomed to work of this 

 character and it required special inducements to tempt them to 

 wade barefooted the coral-beset lagoons or to traverse the keen- 

 edged rocks with burdens of from fifty to a hundred pounds on 

 their heads. At last our selected examples were placed in a canoe 

 and started on their voyage to the schooner, which they reached 

 with the breakage of three out of nine specimens. The subse- 

 quent necessity of beaching the schooner to repair a leak and a 

 rough night during the return passage to Nassau further endan- 

 gered them, but after several minor mishaps they accomplished 

 in safety the first part of their voyage to the Museum. In Nassau 

 they were treated with a solution of gum arable, which hardened 

 them superficially and, after being wrapped in plaster of Paris 

 bandages, they were packed separately in large boxes with sponge 

 clippings and thus reached New York in an undamaged con- 

 dition. 



Specimens of Flamingoes themselves were also secured to- 

 gether with photographs of their rookeries. The four nests col- 

 lected differ from the conventional idea of a Flamingo's nest 

 in being much lower and of greater diameter. They, however, 

 fairly represent the prevailing types of nests examined. Doubt- 

 less the height of the nest, like the height of the "chimneys" of 

 fiddler crab burrows, is governed by the rise of the water. Built 

 wholly of mud, which is scooped up from about the base of 

 the nest by the bird, it is necessary that the site chosen shall 

 be near enough to water to insure an abundant supply of suffi- 

 ciently soft material. Such a site, however, brings the nest 

 within reach of the tide or places it in a low situation which 



82 



