INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 9 



our shores ; in all probability most of the birds which visit us breed on 

 the west coast of the Red Sea, and, if such is the case, there would be 

 nothing very remarkable in the shortness of the time elapsing between 

 the departure of the last birds and the arrival of the earliest ones in 

 the following September and October. It seems likely that none of 

 the various species of flamingoes migrate to any great distance, and 

 some, as we know, are practically permanent residents of the countries 

 they inhabit. In Vol. IV of Stray Feathers Hume has the following 

 note on this beautiful bird : " "We know but little as yet of this species. 

 I ascertained that it occurred in Scind in the early part of the hot 

 weather. Captain Fielden shot it in July in Secunderabad. It has 

 been seen on the great Majuffgarh JheeJ, 20 miles north of Delhi, 

 during the cold season, and Mr. Adams has given us full accounts of 

 its occurrence in great numbers, but irregularly, at the Sambhar Lake.. 

 We have no record of its occurrence in any other part of Jodhpore, or 

 in Kutch, or in Kathiawar. 



In habits the Lesser Flamingo seems to differ in no way from its 

 larger cousin, and is just as wary a bird as the latter. It is on the Sam- 

 bhar Lake alone, perhaps, that it has, as a species by itself, been obser- 

 ved in any numbers in India. There it was found to be an extremely 

 wide-awake bird ; even in the middle of the day it rested well away 

 from all cover and was most difficult of approach. It feeds in the 

 manner usual to the genus — that is to say, in groups, the formation of 

 ■which is generally a long line. This line slowly advances through the 

 shallow water, the long necks of the birds covering a radius of some 

 two feet or so as, head downwards, they shovel and rake about in all 

 directions in search of food. 



The only note I can find regarding the nidification of this flamingo 

 is that made in this journal by the late E. Barnes, who says that he 

 obtained an egg from a fisherman who had found it on a sand-bank 

 in the Indus. This egg, from its very small size, he believed to 

 have belonged to the present species, and he adds that he examined the 

 huge series of flamingo eggs in the Frere Hall Museum, Karachi, 

 but failed to detect any so small. There is no reason to be found why 

 the egg should not belong to P. minor, and Barnes was so careful in 

 the statements he made that I think this egg is more likely to belong, 

 to that bird than to P. roseus. 



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