THE OOLOQI8T 



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was Dr. Frank M. Chapman, in 1901, 

 when he estimated that some 20,000 

 flamingoes were to be found on one of 

 the little known islands of the Ba- 

 hamas group. Since then, it is be- 

 lieved, fully two-thirds of the colonies 

 have perished. 



The expedition that spent ten days 

 in the abysmal salt swamps of Andros 

 Island, filming the flamingo and study- 

 ing his habitat for scientiflc purposes, 

 was sent out by the Miami Aquarium 

 Association, and the personnel of the 

 party included James A. Allison, presi- 

 dent of the association; Carl G. Fisher, 

 its vice-president; Louis A. Fuertes, 

 nature artist and bird life expert; Nor- 

 man McClintock, naturalist and bird 

 photographer; Louis L. Mowbray, 

 technical director of the Miami Aquar- 

 ium; Charles Harrison Thompson, 

 Florida hunter and flsh expert; John 

 H. Levi and John Oliver La' Gorce, 

 secretary-treasurer of the Aquarium 

 Association and vice-director of tne 

 National Geographic Society. 



"L'Apache," Mr. Allison's yacht, 

 was the mother ship of the expedition, 

 and the express cruiser, "Shadow V," 

 was used as a scout boat. Canvas 

 canoes were taken along to get into 

 the shallow salt creeks and nose into 

 the lagoons for deep entrances to the 

 murky swamps where the ^.amingo 

 hides. A Bahama guide, Peter Banni- 

 ster, who had aided Dr. Chapman's 

 party nineteen years ago, also v/ent 

 with the party. 



After penetrating to the utmost 

 navigable points with the canoes it 

 was necessary to traverse miles of 

 the "swash" or tidal marl marshes, 

 carrying the heavy cameras and 

 motion picture machines, in searc'i for 

 the birds. Wading in the water up to 

 the waist, knee deep in the ma^l mud, 

 was the dail:/ programme, while blind- 

 ing swarms of mosquitoes compelled 

 nightly retreats to "L'Apache," an- 



chored several miles off-shoie. 



But the hardships found a worthy 

 reward when the party came upon 

 colonies of several hundred birds, des- 

 cribed by Mr. LaGorce as "a flaming 

 mass of brilliant scarlet bodies, jet 

 black beneath the huge wings, with 

 their long, slender necks gracefully 

 lowering and raising their Roman- 

 nosed heads as they sought beneath 

 the water the tiny spiral shell, known 

 to scientists as 'cerithium.' upon which 

 the flamingo lives exclusively in its 

 native habitat." 



The expedition gathered much valu- 

 able scientiflc material, not only con- 

 cerning the life habits of the flamingo, 

 but of other rare birds and fish of the 

 Bahamas. The isolation of the fiam- 

 ingo may be sensed from the fact 

 that the members of the party were 

 the first white men to land at Man- 

 grove Key in seven years. Mangrove 

 Key is a small hamlet, presided over 

 by a crown commission, the only vis- 

 ible sign of British authority to be 

 found on an island ninety miles long 

 and forty wide Because of this iso- 

 lation many of the little known "out 

 islands" of the Bahamas, only now 

 and then visited by the sponge fishers, 

 have preserved primitive conditions 

 that hold secrets of high value to the 

 naturalist. 



Both Colonial Gov. Grant and F. C. 

 Wells-Durant, colonial secretary of 

 the Bahama's, extended every courtesy 

 and assistance and were deeply inter- 

 ested in the results of the expedition, 

 especially of the discovery which 

 pointed to the threatened extinction 

 of the fiamingo. The Bahama law has 

 protected the flamingo for fifteen 

 years, but the habitat of the bird is so 

 far from settlements that little atten- 

 tion has been paid to the menace of 

 the spongers. The party found 

 spongers in the act of killing the birds, 

 and a government official swore in 



