182 BAHAMA BIRD-LIFE 



flaming serpents ; then, as the alarm-note continued and was 

 taken up by a thousand throats, the birds, like a vast con- 

 gregation, with dignified precision of movement, gravely 

 arose, pressing their bills into the nests to assist them- 

 selves. 



Under circumstances of this kind the birds rarely left 

 their nests, and it was difficult to determine the cause of 



Photographic Evidence that the Flamingo Does Net " Straddle " the Nest 

 The birds in the background are sparring 



their alarm. Often, doubtless, it was baseless, but at times 

 it was due to a circling Turkey Vulture, the gaunt ogre of 

 Plamingodom, which, in the absence of the parent birds, is 

 said to eat not only eggs but nestlings. Possibly some slight 

 sound from my tent, where, with ill-controlled excitement, I 

 was making photograph after photograph, may have occas- 

 ioned the deep-voiced, warning huh-huh-huh. 



I had so often fruitlessly stalked these wary birds across 

 the swash, that I was tempted to step out from my blind and 

 address a word of triumph to the assembled multitude ; but 

 so sudden an alarm might not only have caused the destruc- 



