Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-07-03

and then peacefully resumed the pro-
cess Of fncubating. Meanwhile there
was an ornithologist inside an UNI.
brella almost crazy with excitement,
taking photographs like mad.
| me second morning he moved his
blind INTO the very heart of the city,
within arms reach of the nests. Ev-
cry time he looked out Of crack In the
| umbrella he seemed to be looking
squarely into birds eye, and he could
hardly believe the bird gazer did not
| recognize what she was looking into.
lie stayed all day and day after day.
lie saw the birds mend their nests.
ravased by the storm. reaching their
| bills down from the top of the struc-
ture tor bill full Of mud, then plast-
ering it neatly on with bills and feet.
He measured the nests, eight inches
high, with depression of one inch at
the top, in which lay a single egg.
He disproved many hoary fallacies.
Since Sir Henry Blake made some in.
complete Investigations in 1887 1t had
been believed that the father famingo
stood beside his spouse while she was
sitting upon the egg. Mr.. Chapman
manly and domestic consort. He takes
his turn with the mother in incubatinc
the eggs.
The birds work in two shifts, changing
at morning and evening. when long rose
colored lines come flying in from every
point OF the compass, and others, made
up of the birds relieved, fly away in their
turn to the feeding grounds As Peter
said:
Il do t'ink, san, when lady filiymingo
leave mes. gentleman fllymingo take huh
place, sah.''
All day an astonishing uproar fills
! iaminso city. An elevated train could
pass IN close proximity without being
heard.
But at noon silence reigns The hour
LOT Slesta has come. Each bird disposes
her head under the feathers on her back
and sleeps. But at a single honk OF
alarm up rise thousands of snaky, rosy
hecks' IKE mass OF glowing. writhing
Serpents
In order that they should never know
that anyone was in the blind, Mrs. Chap
man came to the city at certain hour
every afternoon. and during the absence
OF the birds Mr.. Chapman retired, while
the ftamingo never seemed to know that
two went walking away where one had
come. During their absence he would
birds.
These when only n day old. would hop
out of the nest and scuttle Oft. showing
the inordinate shyness of the bird; for
ordinary woodland birds do not know the
sensation Of fear till some time after
their birth: Upon the return of the par
ents each little bird would run home
Most of them recognized the sound OF
their parents voice; but If now and then
a little CHAP lost his way and tried to
on the nape of his neck sent him on to
his own door. How did each mother
know how to pick out her own little
white baby"
The little chicks look exactly like barn.
ard chicks, covered with yellowish down,
excepting that they have abnormally long
legs and bills. Half grown they are ex-
tr,ordinarily ugly, their bodies covered
with dull gray feathers. perched at the
toy, apparently. OF ridiculous pair of
All this time the explorers we're Sleep
ing on pneumatic mattresses. with the wa
ter gurgling at the bedside. They calcu-
lated that the mattresses would float If
the waters rose in the night, but they
graphic slides than of themselves. So
Mr.. Chapman sadly tore himself away,
before Flamingo City disbanded for the
year
Each pair of famingoes rear single
so they probably hardly hold
their own. And as fresh meat is rare in
sweet and tender, the negro natives love
them very much. The flamingo race is
doomed. despite its desperate hiding.
When it is gone this unique museum
group with its mounted birds on the
sandy beach melting almost indistin-
yuishably into the painted background,
will remain to tell the tale. Many per
SONS who pause before the group find that
they never knew what color famingoes
were. They are a pure salmon pink, the,
'Xact color of the denizens of the Column
Dia river, but deepening in the soft rich
Dlumage of the neck and breast into an
exquisite yelVety effect