Young Flamingos 



197 



treads water or dances when feeding, to float its food ofif the bottom so that 

 it can be more readily secured. 



A curious habit of some young birds which I brought with me for pur- 

 poses of study, consisted of an apparent attempt to feed one another. An 

 accompanying photograph depicts two birds in the act, and renders further 

 description unnecessary. At such times the birds uttered a rattling cluck 

 which was heard on no other occasion. 



The note of very young birds is a puppy-like barking. This is soon fol- 

 lowed by a kind of squealing whistle, and this, in turn, by a chirruping crow 

 which persists until the bird is at least two months old. The whistling 

 note was the characteristic one at the time of which I write, and, under 



vol \(. II.AMINGOS IN A FLOODED ROOKERY 



proper conditions, the chorus of young birds could be plainly heard, day or 

 night, at my tent a mile away. As the snowy natal down of the Flamingo 

 chick increases in length it becomes much grayer, while the bill and feet 

 change to lead -color. At the age of five or six weeks this down is pushed 

 further outward by the second plumage, which first appears upon the 

 shoulders. This second plumage is grayish brown streaked with black 

 above, the under parts being much paler. The wing-coverts and under 

 parts are delicately tinted with pink. This plumage is followed by the 

 plumage of the adult, which is evidently acquired in late autumn or early 

 winter, since, with one exception, all the several thousand birds I saw in 

 May and June were in full plumage. 



It is when the young Flamingo is in the second, or brown, plumage, and 

 before he has acquired the power of flight, that he is most harassed by his 

 unnatural but worst enemy — the Bahaman negro. The birds still remain 



