FLAMINGO. 



10.^ 



Although, as stated under Haliits, the Flamingoes occasionally resort to ponds of brackish water to cb-ink, I 

 think that, as a rule, they drink pure salt water : I judge this to be a fact, inasmuch as our pet Flamingo Au- 

 rora, conld never be induced to take any thing else. 



The foregoing description of the internal organs, was made from the dissection of a female, obtained on 

 the island of Inagua, Feb. 4th., 1SS8. 



HABITS. 

 There wai*, })erliaps, no biril wliieli I was more anxious to see in its native wilds, 

 than the Flamingo. This was more particulai- the case as I had heard, even from the 

 natives of the Bahamas, such widely varying accounts of the habits, to say nothing of 

 the published descriptions of this bird. It was therefore with peculiar sensation of one 

 who has arrived very near the consummation of some long cherished scheme, that I 

 found myself on tlie afternoon of May 12 1884 in a vessel in which I was absolute mas- 

 ter for a time, which was lying at anchor ofl'a little creek that enters Middle Bight, An- 

 dros, from the northward. The scene was peculiar and thoroughly characteristic of 

 the home of the Bahama Flamingoes, wherever I have found them. 



Fig. 2(). 



Tamed Flamingo, Aurora. 



The water in which our small craft was lying was barely deep enough to float her, 

 although Ave were anchored half a mile from shore. From this point the bottom, 

 which was composed of soft whitish mud, sloped gradually to the clayey banks ; then the 

 light colored, level marl flats extended for miles north and south ; terminating on the 

 west in the coast line of the isjanil some two miles distant, and eastward by a long line 

 of piiiey woods looking blue and indistinct in the distance. 



