1 66 , The Stork-like Birds 



the sound produced by wringing out a wet cloth. They feed a great deal by day, 

 but more, I think, by night." Scott, who observed a large flock, estimated at 

 one thousand birds, near Cape Sable, Florida, found them feeding by day ; they 

 were there stretched out in a long line, sometimes in a single but as often in 

 double rank. This line varied in length at different times, sometimes being fully 

 a mile long. He also notes that "all the time the birds were feeding there were 

 three small parties, varying from two to five individuals, that were apparently 

 doing a sort of picket duty." About every half hour the pickets were relieved 

 by others, so that there were always a dozen or so on guard, and he found it im- 

 possible to approach within shooting distance. The nesting site of this flock 

 Scott was not able to discover, but it was presumably not far from where he found 

 them. 



Flamingos are gregarious at all seasons, and especially during the breeding 

 period. Mr. F. M. Chapman recently visited a colony on Andros Island in the 

 Bahamas. The locality where they were found is described as "only a few inches 

 above sea level and is characterized by wide stretches of shallow lagoons bordered 

 by red mangrove trees with occasional bare bars of gray marl. . . . Subsequent 

 research showed that the locality was regularly frequented by these birds as a 

 breeding resort, but that apparently a different spot was chosen each year. Eight 

 groups or villages of nests were found within a radius of a mile, each evidently 

 having been occupied but one year. The largest of these, placed on a mud- 

 bar only an inch or two above the level of the surrounding water, was one 

 hundred yards in length and averaged about thirty yards in width. An esti- 

 mate, based on an actual count of a portion of this colony, gave a total 

 of 2000 nests for an area of, approximately, only 27,000 square feet." The 

 nests, which were made of mud scooped up on the spot, were about fifteen or 

 eighteen inches in diameter at the base and some twelve or thirteen at the top, 

 and were from nine to twelve inches in height. Other observers describe the height 

 of the nests as only a few inches, while the extreme of eighteen inches has been 

 reported. The height of the nest appears rather to depend upon the depth of 

 the water it is necessary to avoid. The eggs, one or two in number, are pure white 

 and some three and one half by two inches. The manner in which the birds 

 "sit " while incubating has been the subject of much discussion. It was formerly 

 asserted that the long legs were permitted to hang down on either side of the 

 nest, but it seems now to be definitely settled that such is not the case. Thus 

 Mr. Abel Chapman, who found the European species nesting at the mouth of the 

 Guadal quiver in Spain, distinctly states that they have "their long legs doubled 

 under their bodies, the knees projecting as far as beyond the tail, and their 

 graceful necks neatly coiled away among their back feathers, like a sitting Swan, 

 with their heads resting on their breasts." This position has also been recorded 

 for the American species by Mr. C. J. Maynard, who visited nesting places in the 

 Bahamas, where among hundreds of sitting birds "not one had its legs hanging 

 down." 



As might be supposed, a flock of Flamingos, numbering as it often does 

 hundreds or even thousands and tens of thousands of individuals, presents a truly 



