BIRDS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 
180 
FAM. PHCENICOPTERID^E. 
FLAMINGOES. 
PHCENICOP TERUS . RUBER. (Lznn.) 
Flamingo. 
Local Name. — Felimingo. 
Adult Male. — Entire plumage, scarlet ; most of primaries, 
black ; legs, lake-red ; terminal half of bill, black ; basal half of 
lower mandible, orange ; young males and females are paler. 
Length 52, wing 17, tail 6.50, tarsus 12.50, bill 5.25. 
This beautiful species w'as at one time very abundant through- 
out the Bahama Islands ; but of late years they have been so 
persecuted by the inhabitants that at the present time they are to be 
found in any numbers only upon the inland ponds and marshes of 
Inagua and Abaco. They are gradually dying off, or seeking some 
more inaccessible locality as yet undisturbed by the presence of 
mankind, and in all probability with the next century the Flamingo 
will be unknown in the Bahamas. The inhabitants find their breed- 
ing-places and gather hundreds of their eggs. They kill great 
numbers of the young birds before they are able to fly, and carry 
