204 On the trail of vanishing birds 



pened to stumble on the performance that is perhaps the most in- 

 triguing in the flamingo's entire repertoire. It was March, the sea- 

 son when these birds usually begin the involved quadrilles and 

 cotillions that lead to courtship, and eventually, to what W. S. 

 Gilbert, in the guise of "Bab," once referred to as "connubial 

 fondlings and affectionate reciprocities." The wonderful confusion 

 I saw that first morning became even more wondrous when, on 

 subsequent trips, I observed it with less fluster and more under- 

 standing. On another March morning, in our camp on Jackass 

 Cay, the ever reliable Sammy advised that the flamingos were 

 again "commulating" in the Upper Lakes. This appears to be 

 Sammy's own term and, since the prenuptial behavior of the fla- 

 mingo is pretty much a community or communal affair, it is a 

 peculiarly apt, portmanteau sort of word when applied to this 

 species. We set off at once and even before reaching Long Cay, 

 shortly after six o'clock, we saw the large flock that had been night- 

 roosting in the pond there rise in a magnificent massed flight and 

 head out directly into the rising sun toward the Upper Lakes. 

 Farther along, near the Resting Tree, we could see other flocks 

 coming in from the north and east, all moving in from night ponds 

 and congregating in the First Puddle, as the natives call the most 

 westerly of the Lakes. 



The Upper Lakes, probably because of their greater isolation, 

 have long been an important nesting area for the flamingos. They 

 are quite distinct from Lake Windsor but, like that larger body, 

 are supplied with fresh sea water by the movement of tides 

 through breaks in the bottom, or floor, of each of them. With no 

 other inlet or outlet, plus the rapid evaporation of that hot, wind- 

 swept climate, the salinity will average about twice that of normal 

 sea water. As in the big lake, this salinity factor may limit the 

 number of species that can exist in such an environment, but it 

 does not necessarily limit them numerically. Certain microscopic 

 organisms diatoms, dinoflagellates, rhizopods, bacteria of several 

 kinds, nematode worms, immature mollusks, and other forms 

 may be astonishingly abundant. One extremely numerous killifish, 

 the omnipresent Cyprinodon variegatus, is also able to pass much 

 of its cycle in these excessive salinities, although their life may 



