Part 30 (1/2)

The ioes which, in wet seasons, throng the middle marismas can scarce be described Our bird-islets lay so re shores that no land whatever was in sight; but the desolate horizon that surrounded them was adorned by an almost unbroken line of pink and white that separated sea and sky over the greater part of the circle On exah binoculars, an obvious dissiroups One or two in particular seemed so much denser than the others; the narrohite line looked three tiave the idea that the birds were literally piled upon each other Felipe suggested that these fla-place, and after a long wet ride we found that this was the case The water was very deep, the botto of thee was a welco these aquatic rides eventuated in the loss of one fine mule, a powerful beast worth 60

[Illustration: FLAMINGOES AND THEIR NESTS]

On approach, the cause of the peculiar appearance of the flao city from a distance beca down on a lowerect thereon, while others stood in the water alongside Thus the different elevations of their bodies formed what had appeared a triple or quadruple line

On reaching the spot, we found a perfect mass of nests The low, flat mud-plateau was croith them as thickly as its space perht above the dead-level ht reach four or five inches in height, but the majority were eneral level, and bearing the is distinctly eneral aspect of the plateau e table covered with plates In the centre was a deep hole full of ed appearance of its sides, had probably supplied the birds with building material

[Illustration]

Scattered round theout of the water and evidently built up from the bottoether--”seht inches above water-level, and as the depth exceeded a foot, their total height would be two feet or thereabouts, and their width across the hollowed top, sos, and though we returned to the _pajerera_ on the latest day ere in its neighbourhood (May 11), they still reoes were sitting on the nests, and on the 11th we enjoyed excellent views at close quarters Linked ar low on the water to look as little human as possible, we had approached within seventy yards before the sentries first showed signs of alar flas doubled under their bodies, the knees projecting slightly beyond the tail, and the graceful necks neatly curled away a swan, so on the breasts--all these points were uns in an incubating flareat majority of cases, the nests were barely raised above the level of the mud-plateau To sit _astride_ on a _flat_ surface is out of the question

Inexplicable it seeo, a bird that spends its life half knee-deep in water, should so long delay the period of incubation

For long ere eggs could be hatched, and young reared, the full summer heats of June and July would already have set in, water would have utterly disappeared, and the fla desert of sun-bakedunable ourselves to return to the s--long, white, and chalky, soed Two is the nus taken on May 24, which e date of laying There res had been laid before our visit on May 9, but swept up ” above described was the first seen by ornithologists, and the observations ere enabled to make settled at last the position and o[49]

Science is is from devotion to his subject, and from no extrinsic motive--such as personal kudos Nevertheless, we oric claim for ourselves simply because the credit, _quantuht away, but rather) insinuated on behalf of others who didn't earn it--analogous with the case of Dr Cook and the North Pole

Where do these thousands of Spanish flaoes breed, and how do they maintain their numbers, when Spain, three years out of five, is _too dry_ for nesting purposes? The only obvious answer is, Africa And, though incapable yet of direct proof, that answer is clearly correct

For flaoes are essentially denizens of the tropic zone The few that ever overlap into southern Europe are but a fraction of their swar our own expeditions into British East Africa, we found flaoes in vast abundance on all the equatorial lakes we visited--Baringo, Nakuru, Elton, where, during past ages, they have so polluted the foreshores as to preclude huoes, a fehich ”slop over” into Europe; we shot two specioes are not ratory in an ordinary sense--birds born on the equator seldom are Their movements have no seasonal character, but depend on the rainfall and the varying condition of the lagoons at different points within their range Here, in Spain, we see the to the state of thecolour-study they present when pink battalions contrast with dark-green pine beneath and set off by deepest azure above

In 1907 fla-colony at a spot called Las Albacias in the marisma of Hinojos A mass of nests was already half built, then suddenly abandoned ”If the shadow of a cloud passes over them, they forsake,” say the herdsmen of the wilderness

[Illustration: FLAMINGOES ON THEIR NESTS]

Quantities of drift grass and weed are always found floating where a herd has been feeding, which at first led us to suppose that their food consisted of water-plants (as with geese), but that is not the case

The floating grasses are only incidentally uprooted by the birds while delving in the oes ”live on mud,”

and truly an examination of their crops appears to confirm this But the mud is only taken in because of the masses of minute creatures (_animalculae_) which it contains, and which for atoms are would require both a e of zoophites to deteran filling the whole cavity of the mandibles, and furnished with a series of flexible bony spikes, or hooks, nearly half an inch long and curving inwards Flaues are said to have formed, an epicurean dish in Roman days

However that h as india-rubber; even our dogs refused the ”delicacy” This bird's flesh is dark-red and rank, quite uneatable

In the New World the o (_Phoenicopterus ruber_) was solved just three years later, and in a precisely similar sense

[Illustration: HEAD OF FLAMINGO

Showing the spikes on tongue and lamellae on mandibles

[The beak had to be forced open]]

We will close this chapter with a reference to a recent and most complete demonstration of our subject--that of our namesake, Mr Frank M Chapman, of the American Museuist_ Therein is set forth, in Chapter IV, the last word on this topic In America, as in Spain, the final solution of the problem was only attained after years of patient effort and ht and honesty of purpose thatof natural phenomena, this book sets forth the life-history and do to raphs that are absolutely unique[51] We conclude by quoting our bird-friend's opening sentence: ”There are larger birds than the flae, but no other large bird is so brightly coloured, and no other brightly coloured bird is so large In brief, size and beauty of plume united reach their maximum development in this reregarious habit seened to display itsadvantage When to these superficial attractions is added the fact that little or nothing has hitherto been known of its nesting habits, oneof a naturalist, not only to behold a flaht in the bird-world--but to lift the veil through which the flao's home-life has been but dimly seen”