l8o BIRDS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 



FAM. PHCENICOPTERID.^. 



FLAMINGOES. 



PHCENICOPTERUS RUBER. {Linn.) 

 Flamingo. 



Local Name. — Felimingo. 



Adult Male. — Entire plumage, scarlet; most of primaries, 

 black; legs, lake-red; terminal half of bill, black; basal half of 

 lower mandible, orange ; young males and females are paler. 



Length 52, wing 17, tail 6.50, tarsus 12.50, bill 5.25. 



This beautiful species was at one time very abundant through- 

 out the Bahama Islands; but of late years they have been so 

 persecuted by the inhabitants that at the present time they are to be 

 found in any numbers only upon the inland ponds and marshes of 

 Inagua and Abaco. They are gradually dying off, or seeking some 

 more inaccessible locality as yet undisturbed by the presence of 

 mankind, and in all probability with the next century the Flamingo 

 will be unknown in the Bahamas. The inhabitants find their breed- 

 ing-places and gather hundreds of their eggs. They kill great 

 nunibers of the young birds before they are able to fly, and carry 



