The FLAMIX60. 249 



A large and finely illustrated volume entitled " Birds of the 

 Bahama Islands," has, during the present year [1880], been pub- 

 lished in Boston by its author, Mr. Charles B. Corey. It contains 

 the fruits of his own personal observations, and valuable infor- 

 mation derived from other authors. We glean from it most of 

 our information concerning the ornithology of the islands. 



The Flamingo, for the size and brilliancy of its plumage, is 

 most remarkable. To be appreciated it must be seen. With a 

 small delicate neck longer than its body, and Avith lean and lank 

 legs longer than its neck, it stands more than five feet high, 

 dressed entirely in scarlet, and with lake-red legs. Most of its 

 primaries are black, as is also the terminal half of its bill; the 

 basil half of the lower mandible is orange. The only bird of 

 this kind which we saw in Nassau w^as tame, and was kept as 

 an unique and beautiful curiosity. Mounted upon stilts, it was 

 quite amusing to watch it stalk around among feathered creatures 

 less curiously made and less flashily dressed, and still more 

 amusing to see it drink — which feat it accomplishes only by 

 turning its head upside down so as to use the beak as a cup — 

 a feat which is rendered quite easy of accomplishment by reason 

 of its long flexible neck. 



Mr. Corey says: — " This beautiful species was at one time very 

 abundant throughout the Bahama Islands, but of late years they 

 have been so persecuted by the inhabitants that at the j^resent 

 time they are to be found in any numbers only upon the inland 

 ponds and marshes of Inagua and Abaco; they are gradually dy- 

 ing off, or seeking some more inaccessible locality as yet undis- 

 turbed by the presence of mankind, and in all probability, with 

 the next century the flamingo will be unknown in the Bahamas. 

 The inhabitants find their breeding places, and gather hundi'cds 

 of their eggs. They kill great numbers of the young birds be- 

 fore they are able to fly, and carry away nearly as many alive to 



