Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0063/00637.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 21KB | 311 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00637}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{American Flamingo}
$Subject{Anatinae; Phoenicopterus; ruber; American Flamingo; Greater Flamingo}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume VI}
$Volume{Vol. 6:169-177}
$Family{Anatinae}
$Genus{Phoenicopterus}
$Species{ruber}
$Common_Name{American Flamingo; Greater Flamingo}
$Log{
Plate CCCLXXV*00637P1.scf
Family*00635.txt
Genus*00636.txt
Figure 1, 3*0063701.scf
Figure 2*0063702.scf}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  VI.
                        --------------------------------


                               AMERICAN FLAMINGO.
                              [Greater Flamingo.]


                          PHOENICOPTERUS RUBER, Linn.
                            [Phoenicopterus ruber.]


                          PLATE CCCLXXV.--ADULT MALE.


     On the 7th of May, 1832, while sailing from Indian Key, one of the numerous
islets that skirt the south-eastern coast of the Peninsula of Florida, I for the
first time saw a flock of Flamingoes.  It was on the afternoon of one of those
sultry days which, in that portion of the country, exhibit towards evening the
most glorious effulgence that can be conceived.  The sun, now far advanced
toward the horizon, still shone with full splendour, the ocean around glittered
in its quiet beauty, and the light fleecy clouds that here and there spotted the
heavens, seemed flakes of snow margined with gold.  Our bark was propelled
almost as if by magic, for scarcely was a ripple raised by her bows as we moved
in silence.  Far away to seaward we spied a flock of Flamingoes advancing in
"Indian line," with well-spread wings, outstretched necks, and long legs
directed backwards.  Ah!  reader, could you but know the emotions that then
agitated my breast!  I thought I had now reached the height of all my
expectations, for my voyage to the Floridas was undertaken in a great measure
for the purpose of studying these lovely birds in their own beautiful islands.
I followed them with my eyes, watching as it were every beat of their wings; and
as they were rapidly advancing towards us, Captain DAY, who was aware of my
anxiety to procure some, had every man stowed away out of sight and our gunners
in readiness.  The pilot, Mr. EGAN, proposed to offer the first taste of his
"groceries" to the leader of the band.  He was a first-rate shot, and had
already killed many Flamingoes.  The birds were now, as I thought, within a
hundred and fifty yards; when suddenly, to our extreme disappointment, their
chief veered away, and was of course followed by the rest.  Mr. EGAN, however,
assured us that they would fly round the Key, and alight not far from us, in
less than ten minutes, which in fact they did, although to me these minutes
seemed almost hours.  "Now they come," said the pilot, "keep low."  This we did;
but, alas!  the Flamingoes were all, as I suppose, very old and experienced
birds, with the exception of one, for on turning round the lower end of the Key,
they spied our boat again, sailed away without flapping their wings, and
alighted about four hundred yards from us, and upwards of one hundred from the
shore, on a "soap flat" of vast extent, where neither boat nor man could
approach them.  I however watched their motions until dusk, when we reluctantly
left the spot and advanced toward Indian Key.  Mr. EGAN then told me that these
birds habitually returned to their feeding-grounds toward evening, that they fed
during the greater part of the night, and were much more nocturnal in their
habits than any of the Heron tribe.
     When I reached Key West, my first inquiries, addressed to Dr. BENJAMIN
STROBEL, had reference to the Flamingoes, and I felt gratified by learning that
he had killed a good number of them, and that he would assist us in procuring
some.  As on that Key they are fond of resorting to the shallow ponds formerly
kept there as reservoirs of water, for the purpose of making salt, we visited
them at different times, but always without success; and, although I saw a great
number of them in the course of my stay in that country, I cannot even at this
moment boast of having had the satisfaction of shooting a single individual.
     A very few of these birds have been known to proceed eastward of the
Floridas beyond Charleston in South Carolina, and some have been procured there
within eight or ten years back.  None have ever been observed about the mouths
of the Mississippi; and to my great surprise I did not meet with any in the
course of my voyage to the Texas, where, indeed, I was assured they had never
been seen, at least as far as Galveston Island.  The western coast of Florida,
and some portions of that of Alabama, in the neighbourhood of Pensacola, are the
parts to which they mostly resort; but they are said to be there always
extremely shy, and can be procured only by waylaying them in the vicinity of
their feeding-grounds toward evening, when, on one occasion, Dr. STROBEL shot
several in the course of a few hours.  Dr. LEITNER also procured some in the
course of his botanical excursions along the western coast of the Floridas,
where he was at last murdered by some party of Seminole Indians, at the time of
our last disastrous war with those children of the desert.
     Flamingoes, as I am informed, are abundant on the Island of Cuba, more
especially on the southern side of some of its shores, and where many islets at
some distance from the mainland afford them ample protection.  In their flight
they resemble Ibises, and they usually move in lines, with the neck and legs
fully extended, alternately flapping their wings for twenty or thirty yards and
sailing over a like space.  Before alighting they generally sail round the place
for several minutes, when their glowing tints become most conspicuous.  They
very rarely alight on the shore itself, unless, as I am told, during the
breeding season, but usually in the water, and on shallow banks, whether of mud
or of sand, from which, however, they often wade to the shores.  Their walk is
stately and slow, and their cautiousness extreme, so that it is very difficult
to approach them, as their great height enables them to see and watch the
movements of their various enemies at a distance.  When travelling over the
water, they rarely fly at a greater height than eight or ten feet; but when
passing over the land, no matter how short the distance may be, they, as well as
Ibises and Herons, advance at a considerable elevation.  I well remember that on
one occasion, when near Key West, I saw one of them flying directly towards a
small hammock of mangroves, to which I was near, and towards which I made, in
full expectation of having a fine shot.  When the bird came within a hundred and
twenty yards, it rose obliquely, and when directly over my head, was almost as
far off.  I fired, but with no other effect than that of altering its course,
and inducing it to rise still higher.  It continued to fly at this elevation
until nearly half a mile off, when it sailed downwards, and resumed its wonted
low flight.
     Although my friends Dr. JOHN BACHMAN, Dr. WILSON, and WILLIAM KUNHARDT,
Esq. of Charleston, have been at considerable trouble in endeavouring to
procure accounts of the nidification of these birds and their habits during the
breeding season, and although they, as well as myself, have made many inquiries
by letter respecting them, of persons residing in Cuba, all that has been
transmitted to me has proved of little interest.  I am not, however, the less
obliged by the kind intentions of these individuals, one of whom, A. MALLORY,
Esq., thus writes to Captain CROFT.


                                              "Matanzas, April 20, 1837.
     "Capt. CROFT,
     "Dear Sir,--I have made inquiry of several of the fishermen, and
salt-rakers, who