9U4 
MAN) 
CHRISTMAS 
NUMBER 
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE 
Ode le KIX 
~\DECEMBER, 1904 
No. 2 
A PLAIN GO. 6h Fy 
MmeECORDING AW RECENT EXPLORATION INTO A LITTUR 
KNOWN ETEIED OF ORNITHOLOGY 
BY PRANK MM. CHAPMAN 
Associate Curator in the American Museum of Natural History 
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR, THE FIRST TAKEN OF NESTING FLAMINGOS 
4 ihn RE are larger birds than the fla- 
mingo, and birds with more brilliant 
plumage, but no other large bird is so 
brightly colored, and no other brightly 
colored bird is so large. In brief, size and 
beauty of plume united reach their maxi- 
mum of development in this remarkable 
bird, while the open nature of its haunts 
and its gregariousness seem specially de- 
signed to display its marked characteristics 
of form and color to the most striking ad- 
vantage. 
When to these more superficial attrac- 
tions is added the fact that little or nothing 
is known of the nesting habits of this sin- 
gular bird, one may, in a measure, at least, 
realize the intense longing of the naturalist, 
not only to behold a flamingo city, —without 
question the most striking sight in the bird 
world,— but, at the same time, to lift the veil 
through which the flamingo’s home life has 
been but dimly seen. 
Flamingos are found in the warmer parts 
of both hemispheres. ‘Two species exist in. 
the Old World, four in the New. Of the 
latter the best-known and most widely dis- 
tributed species is the American flamingo 
(Pheniopterus ruber), ranging from the 
Bahamas and southern Florida to Brazil 
and the Galapagos. It is also more 
brightly colored than any of its congeners. 
It is probable that in no part of the area 
inhabited by this bird is it more abundant 
than in certain Bahama islands. Here the 
vast shallow lagoons and_ far-reaching 
‘swashes ”’ contain an inexhaustible store 
of the small spiral shell (Cer7¢himm) upon 
which it appears to feed exclusively, and 
Copyright, 1904, by THE CENTURY CO. All rights reserved. 
LXIx.—21 
