172 



BAHAMA BIRD-LIFE 



and then, when we were still one hundred and fifty yards 

 away, the leaders sprang into the air. File after file of the 

 winged host followed. The very earth seemed to erupt 

 birds, as naming masses streamed heavenward. It was an 

 appalling sight. One of the boatmen said, it looked ' ' like 

 hell, ' ' and the description is apt enough to be set down with- 

 out impropriety. 



" Close-set mud nests each with its single white egg " 



The birds were now all in the air. At the time, I should 

 have said that there were at least four thousand of them, 

 but a subsequent census of nests showed that this number 

 should be halved. This was a tense moment. Knowing, 

 through many disappointing experiences, how excessively 

 shy Flamingos are, I feared that even the lately aroused 

 parental instinct might not be sufficient to hold them to 

 their homes and that, after all, I should be denied the fruits 

 of victory the privilege of studying these birds on their 

 nesting ground. Imagine, then, a relief I cannot describe, 

 when the birds, after flying only a short distance to wind- 

 ward, turned abruptly and with set wings sailed over us, a 

 rushing, fiery cloud, to alight in a lagoon bordering the 

 western edge of the rookery. 



Soon we were among the apparently innumerable, close- 



