THE FLAMINGO 



There are larger birds than the Flamingo, and birds 

 with more brilliant plumage, but no other large bird is so 

 brightly colored and no other brightly colored bird is so 

 large. In brief, size and beauty of plume united, reach their 

 maximum of development in this remarkable bird, while the 

 open nature of its haunts and its gregariousness seem spe- 

 cially designed to display its marked characteristics of form 

 and color to the most striking advantage. 



When to these more superficial attractions is added the 

 fact that little or nothing has been known of the nesting hab- 

 its of this singular bird, one may, in a measure at least, rea- 

 lize the intense longing of the naturalist, not only to behold 

 a Flamingo City without question the most remarkable 

 sight in the bird world but, at the same time, to lift the 

 veil through which the Flamingo 's home-life has been but 

 dimly seen. 



Flamingos belong to the group of birds which in the later 

 Tertiary Period doubtless were of circumpolar distribution 

 and are now confined to the warmer parts of both hemis- 

 pheres (see also remarks on the former distribution of Pel- 

 icans). 



Two species exist in the Old World, four in the New. Of 

 the latter, the largest, brightest, and most common species is 

 the American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) which is 

 found from the Bahamas and southern Florida (irregularly, 

 in winter) to Brazil and the Galapagos. Probably in no 

 other part of the area inhabited by this bird is it more abun- 

 dant than in certain Bahaman islands. Here, the vast shal- 

 low lagoons and far-reaching * ' swashes ' ' contain an appar- 

 ently inexhaustible store of small, spiral shell (Cerithium) 

 upon which it appears to feed exclusively. These lagoons 



