THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 95 



continues on another page to say that they are found also near 

 Azua. Walton reports them in 1810 from the Plains of Neiba. In 

 view of these early observations it is of interest to record that Abbott 

 secured a male at the eastern end of Lake Enriquillo on October 5, 

 1919, and was told that these birds nested in that region. He saw 

 as many as forty or fifty in a day. Condit and Ross in the course 

 of a geological reconnaissance of the Republic also reported them 

 on the southern shores of Lake Enriquillo. Buffon writes thai 

 Deshayes recorded them on Lake Enriquillo, and that at one time 

 several were kept in captivity for a year. Salle informs us that 

 though he did not secure specimens he saw these birds near the 

 "Laguna de Neiba." Three taken by Abbott at Trujin in this same 

 general region include two adult females and a male in immature 

 plumage. They were said to breed at the south end of the lagoon 

 at that point. J. L. Peters examined the skull of one taken near 

 Monte Cristi by Curt Peters, and says that they are reported in fall 

 in that vicinity. Tristram examined one in a collection of birds 

 made by C. McGrigor in the Dominican Republic (without specific 

 locality). Abbott heard of them on Saona Island in 1919, but did 

 not find them. Rochefort in 1618 says that flamingos were common 

 and that hunters approached them on all fours, covered with the 

 skin of an ox so that they passed unnoticed among the grazing cattle. 

 By this ruse they killed the birds with ease. He describes the 

 flesh as delicate, and the skin as prized for its down. He believed 

 that the birds were able to detect the approach of a hunter or the 

 nearness of firearms by their odor (a belief for which we consider 

 there is no foundation, though it is alleged today by duck hunters 

 in parts of Europe that ducks are frightened by human scent borne 

 on the wind). Though Rochefort describes the flamingo, the figure 

 that accompanies his account is that of a spoonbill. Charlevoix, 

 writing in 1733, does not agree with the statement as to the excel- 

 lence of the flesh of the flamingo, as he says that it is ordinary 

 except for the tongue which is a delicate morsel. 



In Haiti Deshayes informed Buffon that flamingos were common 

 on Gonave Island, lie a Vache and in the Cul-de-Sac region. Saint- 

 Mery at the end of the eighteenth century reported flamingos as 

 common near Gonai'ves, and said that they breed there. They were 

 kept in captivity by Rossignol de Grandmont, and became very tame. 

 He recorded them also on the coast at Aquin, and says that the Baie 

 des Flamands is named from their presence. Descourtilz likewise 

 found them very common near Gona'ives, and relates that during a 

 threatened invasion by the English an excited negro threw the entire 

 populace into a state of alarm by mistaking the flocks of pink plum- 

 aged flamingos on the salines for troops of red-coated British sol- 



