4 INKIAN DICKS, 



A^ain, niv t'riciul Dr. E. Hartcrt, wlieu visitini;' Boiuiirc, cauu' across a 

 colony of Flainin<>;oes breeding ; and, tlion|>li he could not approach near 

 enough to obtain s[)ecini<'ns and satisfy himself as to the species, he 

 managed to visit the nesting-i»laces, and he mentions that he obtained 

 two fresh eggs which were lying in the water. Here the birds do not 

 seem io have commenced breeding in earnest, and these eggs appear to 

 have been casually dropped by them into the water, either liefore the nest 

 had been made to receive them, or, more likely, before the bird felt 

 inclined to connnence incubation. 



All kinds of Flamingoes, of wLiich the niditication i> known, breed 

 iu large communities, and seem to select much the same kind of 

 country — sheets of water, wide in extent, but very shallow — as the sites 

 in which to make their nests. These are inverted cones of mud, sonu^ 

 foot or eighteen inches high, with the ends flattcneil off and a shallow 

 cavity nuide in their summits. The nests are made close tooethei', in 

 many cases several in a grou[) almost touching onc^ another ; but of course 

 their proximity to each other depends greatly on the de})tli of the water in 

 which thc^y are placed. Where this is variable the nests will be found in 

 close clusters in the shallower parts, sometimes even on mud- or sand-banks 

 above water-level. Where the water is all shallow — such as is fouiul in 

 the Rhone Delta, Spain, and elsewhere — the nests are scattered casually 

 over a considerable extent of land. In Bonaire the land on which the 

 birds had made their nests was not of mud or sand covei-ed by water, but 

 of coral. Hartert's own words describe the place vividly for us ; lie 

 says : — " The water was deej) in places and the bottom very rough, con- 

 sisting of very sharp corals and often of a deceitful crust of salt or sallpetre, 

 under which the water was black and very deep. Jt required much care 

 to avoid these places, and it took us over an hour to reach the nests. 

 The nests themselves were flat plateaus standing out of the Mater from 

 3 to (I inches, the water round them being apparently very shallow ; but it 

 was often the fatal crust that caused this api)earance, not the proper bottom. 

 Many of the nests were close together, and some of them connected by dry 

 ground. They were quite hard, so that one could stand on them, and 

 almost the only way of getting along was to jump from one nest to 

 another. The nest consisted of clay, hardened by the sun and itenetrated 

 and encrusted with salt and pieces of coral, with a distinct concavitv in 

 the centre." 



The eggs, nearly invariably two in number, are long ovals, generally a 

 good deal [.ointed at the ends. The colour of the true shell itself is a pale 

 skim-milk blue; but they are so encrusted with a dense chalkv coverino- 



