64. THE AMERICAN FLAMINGO. 
A few days later we anchored a few miles east of the eastern- 
most Cape Sable, on the extreme south point of the state. 
Early next morning a flock of 31 Flamingoes flew past us 
eastward, and a fine breeze soon found us following them. 
‘ My sailor knew the ground well to the southeast of Cape 
Sable, having forty years or more ago often gone with his 
father Flamingo-hunting in that vicinity in summer, when 
the birds were moulting. During the rainy season in sum- 
mer the shallow bays and lagoons frequently became too 
deep for convenient feeding, and the birds strayed out on to 
other flats. The natives were in the habit of taking large 
numbers of them for food, during the moulting season, when 
the birds cannot fly, the feathers being so few and the body 
so heavy. The plan adopted is for a number of persons to 
go out with long ropes, surround a flock, drive them 
together in a huddle, then stretch a line of rope around 
them, and at a given signal rush toward the flock. The 
birds being unable to fly in their efforts to escape attempt 
to run past their pursuers, but are tripped up by the rope. 
When thrown down into the water it takes them some mo- 
ments to regain their feet, and thus their captors gather 
them in. Fifty years ago they used to be taken in large num- 
bers and carried to Key West, where they were sold for food. 
The same plan of capturing is now adopted in some of the 
West India Islands, and if it is not prohibited will soon 
exterminate the species. The flesh of Flamingoes is not 
specially desirable for food, being strongly flavored with the 
mollusks on which they feed, and very oily too—I have taken 
a pint of pure grease from the body of a single bird. But 
the natives of the West Indies will eat almost anything— 
even young Man-o’-war birds and Boobies. Oursail that day 
brought us well up to the eastward, and late in the afternoon 
we entered a bay about seven by fifteen miles in extent, almost 
every square rod of which was shallow enough to be waded 
by the Flamingo. The bottom largely consisted of a soft, 
sticky clay, as though composed of fine particles of dis- 
