Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/236

 Young Flamingos

By FRANK M. CHAPMAN

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N the current number of "l'he I Century' the writer has re- counted. at greater length than was possible in BIRD-LORE. his studies in a Bahaman Flamingo Col- ony made in June, 1904. For the circumstances attending this remark- able experience. the reader is referred to ‘The Century‘: here it is pro- posed to add certain details in regard to the habits and plumages of young Flamingos,

Although Flamingos are said to lay one or two eggs, my experience leads me to believe that they rarely, if ever, lay more than one; only two of the 1.500 to 2,000 occupied nests seen by me contained two eggs; all the others held one egg each, and it seems not improbable that the two eggs in one nest were laid by differ- ent birds, though, of course. it is

HEAD OF FLAMINCO ABOUT T\\'0 “'EEKS ULD. FOSSIblc that they may have repre-

snowmo THE necmumo or THE cunve ix sented twins. THE MANDIBLE.

There appears to be some varia- ation in the time of the nesting season of Flamingos in the western Bahamas, but. under normal conditions, eggs are evidently laid the ﬁrst week in May.

In the colony where my studies were made a few newly hatched young birds were seen by a negro scout on June 1. Two weeks later there were hundreds of them.

The period of incubation is not known. so far as 1 am aware, but it doubtless is not far from twenty»eight days, When the egg was pipped, the parent bird was seen turning it in the nest so that the opening would be uppermost.

When the young Flamingo emerges from the egg he appears to be covered with stringy 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 legs and bill are ﬂesh-pink. his eyes brown~black.

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