34 



Tin-: NIDIOLOGIST. 



NESTING OF THE FLAMINGO. 



BV DR. R. W. .SHUFEI.DT 



Perhaps one of the most interesting 

 specimens of a pair of mounted birds and 

 their nests, which the U. S. National 

 Museum of Washington, D. C, sent to the 

 World's Columbian Exhibit at Chicago, 

 were the Flamingoes. It is represented b)- 

 a male and female of the American species, 

 Plioenicoptems ruber, and two of the nests 

 restored in papier mache after the idea of 

 Mr. Robert Ridgwaj-, the curator of orni- 

 thology of that institution. The birds are 

 truly magnificent specimens in full spring 

 plumage ; the male bird is standing up in 

 a very natural attitude and engaged in 

 preening himself, while the female is sitting 

 on the top of one of the nests with her legs 

 drawn up under her, so that her body rests 

 upon the upper part of them and her feet. 

 Protruding out behind we observe the re- 

 mains of the long limbs. I have had a 

 photograph of this group made and present 

 it here as an illustration to this article, 

 feeling assured that it will prove of interest 

 to my colleagues in avian nidiology. 



There still exists in the minds of the best 

 authorities on oology a difference of opinion 

 as to the nesting habits of the Flamingo, 

 as well as the number of eggs it regularly 

 lays to the clutch. Many have published 

 the statement that when the female sits 

 upon her eggs on the ne.st, she allows her 

 legs to hang down at full length over the 

 side of the structure. A figure illustrating 

 this attitude is given in the revised edition 

 of Dr. Coues's "Key" to North American 

 Birds on page 678. Others contend that 

 she never does this, but draws them up 

 beneath her as shown in my illustration 

 here. As will also be .seen from the figure, 

 Mr. Ridgway and others believe they con- 

 struct a mound-like hillock, concaved on 

 top, for a nest — and others dispute this 

 view. A few years ago there was a gentle- 

 man contributed an article to the Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society of London, 

 wherein he gave an account of one of the 



breeding stations of these birds on the 

 Bahama Banks, which he had visited, and 

 he says they make a^^/ nest on the ground, 

 more or less near the water's edge, and sit 

 upon it as shown in the accompanying 

 figure. His name and the exact title of 

 his article has slipped my mind just at this 

 moment, but any one can find it in the P. 

 Z.S. for 1880. 



Considerable difference of opinion exists, 

 too, as to the number of eggs laid by 

 Flamingoes. For instance, Mr. Alfred 

 Newton, F. R. S., in the first part of his 

 Dictionary of Birds (just published) has 

 said : 



"Dampier asserts as of his own observa- 

 tion, near Querisao {i. e. Curacao), prior 

 to 1683, that the hen stands upon them 

 (her legs) while performing that duty 

 which in other birds is rightly called "sit- 

 ting," and the statement being confirmed 

 by other writers, remained unquestioned 

 for a century and a half. Crespon in 1844 

 {Fauna Merid, ii., p. 69) was one of the 

 first to raise a doubt on the subject, though 

 he had before {Ornithol. dii Gard, p. 397) 

 accepted what was and still is the prevalent 

 belief in Southern France {Ibis, 1870, p. 

 441); but he now went so far as to declare 

 that Flamingoes did not build a nest at all, 

 and only laid their eggs on a slight eleva- , 

 tion so as to be out of the water, .sitting 

 upon them with their legs doubled under 

 the belly. Part of this assertion was 

 proved to be false by Lord Lilford (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc, 1880, pp. 446-450), who obtained 

 from Andalusia one of the mud-built nests 

 (ju.st as they were described by Dampier) 

 and gave it to the British Museum, where 

 it may be seen; but he was unable to offer 

 personal evidence as to the position of the 

 bird during incubation, though he doubted 

 the probability of its being with the legs 

 "stretched out behind," as had in the 

 meanwhile been stated {Ibis. 187 1, p. 394). 

 Of late the old story has been absolutely 

 contradicted both in regard to the mediter- 

 ranean species and that of North America. 

 Mr. Abel Chapman described and figured 



