A KEAMINGO CITY 
other of which is always in attendance. 
With a bill as large as their nestling’s body, 
it was of special interest to observe how the 
latter would be fed. The operation is 
clearly shown in an accompanying photo- 
graph. What in effect is regurgitated clam 
broth is taken drop by drop from the tip of 
the parent’s bill. At times the bird, standing 
above its chick, leans over and feeds it, 
or, while brooding, asnowy 
head is pushed out from a 
vermilion wing, and with a 
swan-like movement the 
neck is gracefully curvedas 
the food is administered. 
This is the young bird’s 
first meal. His next at- 
tempts at eating are of spe- 
cial interest. It will be ob- 
served that the bill in a 
newly hatched flamingo 
bears small resemblance to 
the singular, decurved or- 
gan of the adult. In the 
chick the bill is short and 
straight, with no hint of 
future curvature; and at 
this stage of its existence 
the bird feeds in a manner 
wholly unlike that em- 
ployed by the old birds. It 
picks up its food. The sec- 
ond meal, then, consists 
of bits of the egg-shell 
whence the chick has lately emerged. This 
bone-forming matter evidently now takes 
the place of the Cerithium shells which the 
parents seem to find essential to their well- 
being. 
When the bird is about three weeks old 
the bill first shows signs of convexity, and 
the bird now feeds after the singular man- 
ner of the adult, standing on its head, as it 
were, the maxilla, or upper half of the 
bill, being nearly parallel with the ground. 
Contrary to the rule among birds, the lower 
portion of the bill is immovable, but the 
upper portion, moving rapidly, forces little 
jets of water from each side of the base of 
the bill, washing out the sand and the mud 
through the strainers with which the sides 
of the bill are beset, and leaving the shells 
on which the bird subsists. Or, as Peter 
expressed it : “It seems to me, sir, when de 
fillymingo feed dat de upper lip do all de 
wuk, sir, when he chomp, chomp, chomp, and 
grabble in de mud.” 
179 
Young flamingos taken from the rookery 
for further study subsequently gave an 
apparently instinctive exhibit of a charac- 
teristic habit of the adult bird when feed- 
ing. As I have said, the old birds live on 
a small spiral shell and its contents. ‘This 
food is always obtained under water which 
may reach to the bird's body. When the 
shells are apparently embedded in the marl, 
YOUNG FLAMINGOS FEEDING AFTER THE MANNER OF 
GROWN BIRDS 
the feeding bird loosens them by a treading 
motion. It is the flamingos’ one undigni- 
fied action. Birds thus occupied seem to 
be engaged in some ridiculous kind of jig, 
which they dance with head and neck 
submerged. 
Exactly the same performance was in- 
dulged in by the young birds, which, when 
given a pan of rice and water, soon danced 
the rice from off the bottom in order that 
it might be more readily secured. 
The routine of camp life was now defi- 
nitely established. The mornings were 
passed in the blind, the afternoons in the 
preparation of specimens, and the evenings 
were given to the interminable task of re- 
filling plate-holders. 
Daily squalls threatened to blow our 
poorly stayed tent into the creek, and con- 
tinued rains rapidly decreased the extent 
of visible land about us. Nevertheless, we 
were not unduly inconvenienced by the 
weather. 
