. . . Much of the beauty and wonder of nature 

 is based on the fact that organic life is directed 

 towards goals towards survival, reproduction, and 

 the attainment of higher perfection. 



KONRAD LORENZ * 



XII J The flamingo quadrille 



As it turned out, Inagua was the best possibility after all. Not 

 only are there more flamingos on that island today than anywhere 

 else in the range of Phoenicopterus ruber, but conditions there 

 proved to be excellent for setting up a practical protection pro- 

 gram. If necessary we could make a stand at Inagua and, conceiv- 

 ably, hold off the eventual extinction of this species no matter 

 what happened elsewhere. 



It was a March morning when I first stepped ashore on Great 

 Inagua island in the Bahamas. The final lap of the trip was 

 made in a light skiff that had been among the flotsam cast up on 

 the island's shores during World War II. It had been retrieved 

 and mended by one of the local natives, a sturdy islander named 

 Sammy, and it was in this skiff, a few days after I landed on the 

 island, that Sammy and I were poling across the shallow length 

 of Lake Rosa, headed for the flamingos. It was still dark, being 

 only a little past four o'clock in the morning, but Sammy had 

 * Foreword to The Herring Gull's World. 



197 



