vi Preface 



they represented nearly six years of hard work in the field and of 

 even more strenuous effort digging through dusty library shelves 

 and bent over a typewriter. 



In my own case, however, a feeling of having written finis to 

 something worthwhile was short-lived. Not only was there still 

 much to be done for both birds, as new problems cropped up and 

 clamored for attention, but I soon found that such widespread 

 interest had been aroused in both the whooping crane and the 

 flamingo and their separate struggles for survival that I would 

 have to go on and tell the entire story. People wanted to know 

 about those experiences that were not mentioned in the relatively 

 formal pages of the monographs. How had we conducted our long 

 search for the Northern breeding grounds of the whooper? Why 

 had it taken so many years and just what had been our feelings 

 about it in the process? How had we lived on the flamingo islands 

 of the West Indies and what was it like there? So many ques- 

 tions were asked that something had to be done about it. This 

 book is the result, and while it doesn't relate all of our adventures 

 or describe every one of our many difficulties, it is a faithful ac- 

 count of much of what happened to us. 



There is even a brief explanation that will have to stand as an 

 answer to the frequent question, "How did you happen to get 

 into this kind of work in the first place?" As you will see, even so 

 improbable an event doesn't just happen, but is a result of simple 

 cause and effect, as are most events. Provided, of course, that the 

 essential cause is present and that the natural effect is permitted 

 to follow, which it was in my case. 



One half of the book is about the whooping crane, which is 

 certainly fitting, as this great bird continues to dominate the en- 

 tire picture so far as vanishing species are concerned. None of our 

 endangered birds is so well known to the public at large, and yet 

 here are yarns about them that are not generally known. The rose- 

 ate spoonbill, much improved but still not out of the woods, has 

 a chapter of its own, and the remainder of the narrative belongs 

 to the flamingo, whose story is less well known and yet is emi- 

 nently deserving of our attention. There is a final chapter that re- 

 views our record with regard to extinct North American birds and 



