CAMPS AND CRUISES OF AN ORNITHOLOGIST 449 



YOUNG FLAMINGOS IN FLOODED NEST 

 Showing the necessity of raising the nest above the normal water level 



Chapman's vivid and interesting descrip- 

 tions. 



After reaching the desired locality, be- 

 fore securing specimens, the birds were 

 first studied and photographed at short 

 range from a specially constructed urn- 

 "brella blind. This was often placed in 

 the heart of the bird community, as with 

 the flamingos and pelicans, or even in 

 the tree tops, as with the egrets. 



Mr Chapman's description of bird life 

 begins with an account of some of the 

 commoner birds familiar in suburban 

 life ; then the reader is taken to certain 

 famous breeding islands on the middle 

 Atlantic coast, where he pictures and de- 

 scribes the gulls, terns, skimmers, fish 

 "hawks, etc. ; then comes several chapters 

 on Florida bird life, with remarkable pic- 

 tures and many original observations on 

 the brown pelicans, water turkeys, egrets, 



white and blue herons, spoonbills, and 

 birds of like character, followed by a 

 chapter on Bahama bird life, where, after 

 three seasons of arduous and dangerous 

 voyages amid the hundreds of miles of 

 scattered coral reefs and islands, he suc- 

 ceeded in getting the only photographic 

 series of the beautiful pink flamingo, in 

 the very midst of a vast breeding colony 

 that had escaped the watchful eyes of 

 the native spongers, supplementing this 

 series with an equally valuable collection 

 of photographs and specimens of man-o'- 

 war birds and boobies secured on an 

 isolated coral reef in the southerly part 

 of the Bahama group and some 60 miles 

 north of Cuba.* 



From the West India waters we are 



* Described by the writer in the June num- 

 ber, 1908, of the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine. 



