62 THE AMERICAN FLAMINGO. 
Romano, and turned off into a narrow passage leading into 
Caximbas Bay some ten miles north of Cape Romano. This 
bay is a characteristic feeding-ground for the Flamingo, 
whose food is small mollusks, crustaceans, and other marine 
animals gathered from the mud. 
The bird is related to the 4Axatide or duck family, crushing 
its food between its mandibles and sifting out such portions 
as it does not wish to swallow, like a duck. The throat is 
so small that food must be thoroughly crushed before it is 
swallowed. This leads the natives in the West Indies to 
say that the Flamingo lives on dirt. The peculiar shape of 
its beak is specially adapted to its manner of feeding. With 
its long legs to wade, and its long neck to reach down into 
the water to collect its food, it brings the upper portion of 
the upper mandible directly on the bottom, so that it may be 
almost literally said to stand on its head when it eats. It is 
very interesting to see a flock feeding, especially when the 
bottom chances to be a little hard, so that they have to dig 
their food out from the earth. The water prevents their 
scratching like a fowl, but they go through the same motions, 
only not so fast, and as their long legs go up and down 
it reminds one of a regiment of soldiers marking time. 
After they have stirred up the earth for awhile, they put 
their heads down into the water, gather up the results of 
their labor, and then “mark time ” again, constantly swing- 
ing around and gathering the earth up intoa mound. When 
they are through there will frequently be a mound five or 
six inches high and three or four feet across. 
Caximbas Bay is perhaps five miles across in either direc- 
tion, and the larger portion of it so shallow that a boat draw- 
ing fifteen inches of water can only pass over it in high tide. 
It is connected with the Gulf of Mexico by a narrow pass, 
little more than 100 yards wide. The bottom of the larger 
portion of the bay is soft mud, which has evidently been car- 
ried in through the pass from the Gulf, or brought down 
from the neighboring Mangrove islands where it has been 
