70 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



a level bit of lava rock, with mud half an inch deep scraped 

 around it. The birds all left when approached within thirty 

 yards. 



In a lagoon about four miles northwest of Sullivan Bay, on 

 July 28, nine unoccupied nests were found, seven of which 

 were on a small, low, lava-islet, the remaining two being on 

 the adjacent mainland. They were built in the usual style, 

 but were, however, only four or five inches high. An addled 

 egg was found in one. Undoubtedly the nests of the flamin- 

 goes in the Galapagos Islands are not endangered to any 

 great extent by the rise of the water, as are the nests of their 

 Bahama relatives ; hence, perhaps, many are built very low. 



The following notes were made at James Bay in August: 

 August 6, there were twelve flamingoes in the lagoon, one 

 adult and eleven young, three of the latter being large enough 

 to fly. The remaining eight still showed more or less down. 

 Two or three dead young with nearly straight bills were 

 found. They were considerably younger than the ones taken. 

 Two full-grown young were feeding apart from the others. 

 They were approached quite closely and photographed, proving 

 less wary than the adults. August 7, an additional adult had 

 arrived during the night. One of the larger young birds was 

 observed to go through a strange performance; it seemed to 

 be butting an adult. They were all on the beach at the time. 

 The young one would lower its head and bump against the 

 adult with its shoulders; the latter paid very little attention, 

 merely trying to get out of the way. The performance was 

 kept up for about five minutes. Was the young bird begging 

 to be fed ? I had seen it feeding itself — in fact they all seemed 

 to do so, the young apparently being left to themselves most 

 of the time, judging from the absence of the parents. August 

 8 revealed four adults in the lagoon. There were two lagoons 

 south of the one here mentioned, but they did not seem to be 

 used by the flamingoes for breeding purposes. 



The chief associate of the flamingo was the Bahama Pin- 

 tail, while the Black-necked Stilt ranked second. 



The colors of the naked parts in life were as follows : 



Adult — Terminal third of bill black ; remainder of mandible 

 whitish tinged with scarlet; remainder of maxilla, throat, and 

 skin in front of the eyes whitish ; orbital ring buff ; iris straw- 



