110 



THE OOLOGIST. 



after a flock of peeps, Indict manage to 

 bring down six Flamingoes -with two dis- 

 charges of my faithful harmless Scott. At 

 thie moment I once more heard the roar of 

 the huge musket, and turning, saw that the 

 negro had fired into the air. At this mo 

 meiit perceiving one of the birds that I had 

 wounded running away, the excited guide 

 dashed off after it, but the long legs of the 

 slightly wounded bird led him such a race 

 that we did not see either bird or man for 

 as least an hour, when they came back to- 

 gether, the bird dead, hanging over the 

 shoulder of the man. 



We had now ample leisure to collect our 

 thoughts, ay the birds had moved away to a 

 distance and alighted- As we came up to 

 the rookery we had seen hundreds of birds 

 sitting on their nests with their legs 

 doubled under them, not hanging down as 

 is usually represented, and when we came 

 to examine the nests we saw at once the ab- 

 surdity of this theory. Some completed 

 nests containing eggs were only six inches 

 high, some, on the other hand, were at 

 least four feet above the water. Now a 

 bird with legs two feet long might manage 

 to dangle its legs down from a four foot 

 nest, if it chose to put itself in such an un- 

 comfortable attitude, but it surely would 

 experience some difficulty in doing this on 

 a nest only six inches high. Many nests 

 were fully eighteen inches in diameter on 

 top, and some three feet broad at the base, 

 quite a straddle for a bird the legs of which 

 are placed only some two or three inches 

 apart. 



The rookery occupied about a half-acre 

 of land, or rather what was once land, for 

 all, or nearly all, were surrounded by 

 water, and were built on a kind of peniu- 

 sula which had water on three sides of it. 

 The nests were constructed wholly of marl 

 piled layar upon layer, without waiting for 

 any layer to dry. for in some cases the bot- 

 tom was as soft as the top. In scooping up 

 the marl the birds evidently use the lower 

 mandible of the bill, while it is spread and 

 flattened with the feet. The clay is not 

 gathered at randon about the nest, but from 

 a pit on either side, or often from three pits, 

 and it is the joining of these pits that 



causes the nests to be surrounded with 

 water. None of the nests are constructed. 

 quite to the margin of the peninsula, thus 

 a dike nearly surrounds the rookery. I say 

 nearly, for this was broken through on the 

 southern end, and the water from the 

 creeks flowed in, thus the slight inland tide 

 rose and fell among the nests. 



The nests were, as a rule, not over two 

 feet apart, meausuring from their base, but 

 they were generally constructed in groups 

 of from three to seven or eight, each one 

 being joined to one or two of the others at 

 the base, oftentimes for a foot or more. 

 This rookery had evidently been used for at 

 least one year previous to this, as we saw 

 many nests, especially the higher ones, 

 which had to all appearances been con- 

 structed on top of an old foundation. New 

 nests built throughout of soft marl were, on 

 the average, only a foot high, and were 

 built in a certain part of the rookery. All 

 of the nests in the older part of the rook- 

 ery contained eggs, as a rule only one 

 being deposited, and this was placed on the 

 slightly cup-shaped top of the truncated 

 pyramid. Incubatim had began, and in 

 nearly all theeges the embryos were con- 

 siderably advanced. Thus we could judge 

 that the birds had laid all the eggs that 

 they would that season. We estimated 

 that there in the neighborhood of 2,000 

 nests, and in all of these we found only 

 some fifty sets of two eggs, and three in one 

 case only. 



There is considerable waste among the 

 eggs from two causes ; first, by the eggs 

 rolling off the too slightly hollowed tops of 

 the nests, and we formd many in the water; 

 second, from the eggs sinking into the soft 

 mud of the newly formed nests. We found 

 quite a number almost buried from having 

 been deposited before the top of the nest 

 had hardened sufficiently to support their 

 weight. The tops of the old structures 

 were nearly as hard as stone, while the 

 whole edifice was so firm that we could 

 walk over the nests, stepping from one to 

 another. The whole nesting presented a 

 most peculiar appearance, reminding one 

 of a pottery, in which large inverted pots 

 had been set out to dry, each being sur- 

 mounted by a chalky white egg. 



But space will not admit of continuing, 

 and, in fact, the above description must be 

 regarded as only merely random remarks 

 taken from a more detailed account of this 

 nesting which will appear in my work 

 entitled A Naturalist in the Bahamas, now 

 being published. The engravings I have 

 drawn on wood from sketches made from 

 nature, and are intended for my book. 

 — Naturalist in Florida. Sept., 1884. 



