211 The flamingo quadrille 



and try again next year. Obviously, here as in Yucatan and every- 

 where else that flamingos nest, a greater sense of responsibility 

 on the part of government and of the public must be evidenced 

 very soon or the American flamingo will soon be a very rare bird. 

 There is no protection whatever at the Abaco colony, and should 

 flamingos return and attempt to nest at one of the traditional 

 sites on Andros Island, as Mr. Forsyth writes me they did in 1953, 

 they will be met by nothing better than hungry and unrestrained 

 natives with a taste for their eggs and an utter lack of responsi- 

 bility. 



We have done some things for the flamingo, but it is clear that 

 what we have done is not enough. At La Orchila off the Vene- 

 zuelan coast, as a result of the intervention of Billy Phelps, Jr., 

 the president of that country has taken a personal interest in the 

 fortunes of the small flamingo colony. Like the remarkable efforts 

 of the Flamingo Society in the Bahamas, this is most encouraging, 

 but nowhere not in the Bahamas, or in Yucatan, or in the Neth- 

 erlands Antilles, or in Venezuela, and certainly not in Cuba has 

 so much as one square foot of land been set aside, 'with realistic 

 provisions for proper enforcement, as a permanent and inviolate 

 refuge for this lovely and much persecuted bird. If species such 

 as the flamingo are to survive, in the full grandeur of their natural 

 status as wild, free-flying birds, then we must persuade our fellow 

 men that it is time we arranged to share a portion of the earth 

 with them. The results of such an arrangement would be colorful 

 and rewarding beyond all imagination. 



