96 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



diery advancing to attack the town. He tells us also that the natives 

 made flutes and pipe-stems from the long leg bones of these birds. 

 Persecution by hunting probably accounts for the statement of Hit- 

 ter in 1836 that flamingos were seen in flocks but were very shy. 

 Cory says that he saw a flamingo near Gonaives (in the spring of 

 1881), and reports that the bird was known to the natives at Gantier. 

 Tippenhauer records them near Gonaives, and on the saline lakes of 

 the Cul-de-Sac. 



Abbott heard of flamingos on the Grande Saline near Gonaives, on 

 the lagoons on the north side of Gonave Island, and on occasion on 

 Tortue Island, but did not see them. Beebe, on March 15, 1927, en- 

 countered twenty-one in two flocks on the Etang Saumatre and 

 heard that there was a large breeding colony on this lake. He saw 

 three young birds on the wing. W. J. Eyerdam, in a letter sent to 

 the United States National Museum reports that at the end of July 

 and during early August, 1927, during work on Gonave Island, 

 flamingos were common. He counted* twenty-two in one flock and 

 fourteen in another, and stales that they were seen daily while he was 

 at Point-a-Raquettes. The natives reported that they were nesting. 



Capt. R. A. Pressley, United States Marine Corps, states that he 

 has found flamingos regularly in the shallow lagoons near Desdunes, 

 and on April 28, 1927, in flying over this area with Wetmore as pas- 

 senger, located a flock of twelve. As the plane passed and then 

 banked to swing again over the birds, they flew low over the surface 

 of the water — wonderfully beautiful in their pinkish plumage set 

 off by black-tipped wings. To the passenger the pleasure of this 

 view was redoubled when his glance passed over the members of 

 the flock one by one to discover that three birds following behind 

 were the even rarer roseate spoonbill. Danforth and Emlen saw 

 about 150 near the mouth of the Artibonite River July 30, 1927, 

 where they were feeding on the open flats. James Bond writes that 

 he found the flamingo not rare, recording it at the fitang Saumatre. 

 on the lower Artibonite River, at Caracol, and at Fort Liberie. 

 There were many on Laguna Limon on the Dominican frontier in 

 April, 1928, and he saw it in large numbers on Gonave Island. He 

 was told that it nested at Trou Louis on the south side of the island, 

 and at Grand Lagon on the north. 



It is probable that the flamingos of the island nest in one or two 

 colonies isolated in great stretches of salt lagoons, and that they 

 range more widely at other times of the year. It may be possible 

 for some observant aviator to locate such a breeding colony from the 

 air. The birds should not be disturbed as they are now too rare to 

 be considered game. 



