. Bird lore . ngy white hairs, which, in drying, release downy plumules,and at the end of a few hours he is thickly covered with soft, dense down,usually grayish on the back and snowy white everywhere else. His legsand bill are flesh-pink, his eyes brown-black. HEAD OF FLAMINGO ABOUT TWO WEEKS OLD,SHOWING THE BEGINNING OF THE CURVE INTHE MANDIBLE. 193 1 194 Bird- Lore At this age the young Flamingo is nearly as active as a newly hatchedWild Duck. Chicks whose plumage was not yet dry and which, therefore,were not more than an hour or two old, crawled to the edge of the nest atmy approach and dr


. Bird lore . ngy white hairs, which, in drying, release downy plumules,and at the end of a few hours he is thickly covered with soft, dense down,usually grayish on the back and snowy white everywhere else. His legsand bill are flesh-pink, his eyes brown-black. HEAD OF FLAMINGO ABOUT TWO WEEKS OLD,SHOWING THE BEGINNING OF THE CURVE INTHE MANDIBLE. 193 1 194 Bird- Lore At this age the young Flamingo is nearly as active as a newly hatchedWild Duck. Chicks whose plumage was not yet dry and which, therefore,were not more than an hour or two old, crawled to the edge of the nest atmy approach and dropped over its side in an ill-judged effort to escape. This early development of the sense of fear in birds whose nesting-sitesusually exempt them from the attack of marauding animals, was surprisingand is not readily accounted for. So far as I observed, at this early agethese Flamingos had two enemies — fioods and Turkey Buzzards. Theformer, as I learned from two sad experiences, often bring disaster to the. YOUNG \NUNGO RETURNING TO THE NEST egg and the newly hatched chick ; the latter, in view of the comparativescarcity of food for scavenging birds in the Bahamas, find a Flamingo colonyespecially attractive, and, although I did not see them attack a youngFlamingo, the chorus of protests which arose from the parent birds when-ever a Buzzard sailed over the rookery was sufficient to arouse suspicions. The first Flamingo rookery which I visited had been destroyed by rainthree days before my arrival. The second colony discovered, and the onein which my studies were made, was also flooded, and at the time of my de-parture some nests were submerged and all were surrounded by these conditions eggs, of course, are ruined and very young chicks,like the one shown in the photograph, are doubtless drowned. Chicks overa day old can probably escape by swimming. The young Flamingo remains in the nest three or four days. Should


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn