Young Flamingos 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



With photoKraphs by the author 



I 



N the current number of ' The 

 Century' the writer has re- 

 counted, at greater length than 

 was possible in BiRD-LoRE, his 

 studies in a Bahaman Flamingo col- 

 ony made in June, 1904. For the 

 circumstances attending this remark- 

 able experience, the reader is referred 

 to ' The Century ' ; here it is pro- 

 posed to add certain details in regard 

 to the habits and plumages of young 

 Flamingos. 



Although Flamingos are said to 

 lay one or two eggs, my experience 

 leads me to believe that they rarely, 

 if ever, lay more than one; only two 

 of the i,5CX) to 2,000 occupied nests 

 seen by me contained two eggs ; all 

 the others held one egg each, and it 

 seems not improbable that the two 

 eggs in one nest were laid by differ- 

 ent birds, though, of course, it is 

 possible that they may have repre- 

 sented twins. 



There appears to be some varia- 

 ation in the time of the nesting season of Flamingos in the western Bahamas, 

 but, under normal conditions, eggs are evidently laid the first week in May. 

 In the colony where my studies were made a few newly hatched young 

 birds were seen by a negro scout on June i. Two weeks later there were 

 hundreds of them. 



The period of incubation is not known, so far as I am aware, but it 

 doubtless is not far from twenty-eight days. When the egg was pipped, the 

 parent bird was seen turning it in the nest so that the opening would be 

 uppermost. 



When the young Flamingo emerges from the egg he appears to be 

 covered with stringy white hairs, which, in drying, release downy plumules, 

 and at the end of a few hours he is thickly covered with soft, dense down, 

 usually grayish on the back and snowy white everywhere else. His legs 

 and bill are flesh -pink, his eyes brown -black. 



HEAD OF FLAMINGO ABOUT TWO WEEKS OLD, 

 SHOWING THE BEGINNING OF THE CURVE IN 

 THE MANDIBLE. 



193 1 



