207 The flamingo quadrille 



Throughout all this, the females alternately milled about in 

 massed formation and, after reaching a violent and deafening peak 

 of both sound and movement, gradually broke off and reverted to 

 a seemingly unconcerned and probably simulated feeding activ- 

 ity. Then, perhaps in response to a renewed stimulus from within 

 and the visual promptings of the performing males, the milling 

 began again, in another sector of the pond, and again the scene 

 was one of sound and flurry. 



Flocks of both males and females were still coming in, the males 

 forming remote little troops of alert, stiff-necked observers on the 

 fringes of the pond, the females either joining the hard mass of 

 dancing birds directly or dropping into the shallows some distance 

 off and then walking slowly, in single file, toward the demon- 

 strators. Suddenly, just as one of the female performances had 

 broken up, several males rose and flew in wide circles over the 

 now scattered flock. As they made several turns the circles grew 

 progressively tighter and tighter. Beneath them the hubbub was 

 resumed, with the low, gutteral voices of the males joining in, 

 "cak-cakl cak-cak! cak-cak!" until the whole volume of sound 

 reached distressing proportions. As the males settled into the 

 pond, the excited females now moved toward them, as if pulled 

 inward by a powerful magnet (as indeed, in one sense, they were), 

 until the males, their heads thrust high above the entire assem- 

 blage, were in the center of a closely packed, weaving mass of 

 birds. When this demonstration reached its peak and broke off, 

 another company of males arose, circled the flock, and came down 

 to set up a second center. This was repeated until the massed flock, 

 in a final moment of hysteria, had become a creature with several 

 nuclei, of wheels within wheels, each an island of upthrust male 

 heads in a moving sea of paler backs and lesser necks, necks that 

 were lowered in modest, almost demure recognition of the mo- 

 mentary importance of the male of the species. 



This gregarious ritual must have for its purpose the intermin- 

 gling of the sexes under circumstances that promote the various 

 manifestations and labels of sex recognition. Along with the pro- 

 gressive gonadal development of both males and females, which 

 takes place more or less simultaneously, the individual bird pro- 



