Norwich bulletin., 1920-08-02
IN THE DAYS NEWS
sagias Flamineoes in bahamas.

Assurance that the fiaminso. bird of beauty and mystery, will esca6e extinction is contained in letter received by John Oliver LaGorce. vice director Of the Ea- tional Geographic society, from H. F. ". Grant. colonial governor of the Bahamas, which says:
 You will be glad to hear than an order in council has been passed giving com plete protection to the famingo fH1s glory of our marshes owes your exbedi- tion debt of gratitude"
 The action of the Bahamas council was taken following an expedition which trail ed the fafnlngo the most beautiful of the worlds larger binds to it's last stand. took motion pictures Of the timorous birds. brought about a realization Of how nea, they were to becoming extinct in the new world through arnihlation by native sponge fishermen who hunted them down for foed purposes at the nesting and noultine season.
 The first American naturalist to locate and study the gorgeous fiamngo was Dr. Frank M Chapman in 1901. when he ks- tinated that some 25;06o faIilin goes were to be found on one of the HttlA known islands of the Bahamas group Since then it is believed that fully tWe-thirds of the colonies have perished
 The expedition that spent ten dave in the abysmal salt swamy's of A1dros Is;- and filming the farninse and studying his habitat. for scientific purposes, Nas sent out by the Miami Aquarium asao- clation, and the personnel of the party in : cluded James A. Allison, president of the association Carl c. Fisher. it's syice president: Louis Fuertes, nature artist and bird life expert; Norman McCiintock. naturalist and bird photographer Louis L" Mowbray. technical director of the Miami aquarium Charles Harrison Thompson, Florida hunter and fish ex- pert; John H. Levi. and John Oliver La Gorce. seeretary-treasurer of the Aduari- um association and vice director of the National Geographic society
 L'Apaclle, MT. Ailisor1's yacht, was the mother ship of the expedition, and the ex- press cruiser Shadow V was used as q scout boat. Canvas canoes were taken along to get into the shallow salt creeks and nose into the lagoons for deep eb- frances to the rnuYky swaf11ps where the hamingo hides. A Bahama guide Pe4sr Bannister, who had aided Dr. Chapn1an's party 1s years ago, also went with the party.
 After penetrating to the utmost naviga- ole points with the canoes it was neces- sary to traverse miles of the "swash" Or tidal mari marshes, carrying the heavy
 
 search for the birds. Wadins in the water up to the waist knee deep if the mari mud, was the daily program, while blinding swarms of mosquitoes eonipellsd nightly retreats to LApacfe, anchored several miles off shore
 But the hardships found a worthy re- ward when the party came upon colonies of several hundred birds, described by MT. LaGorce as "a flaming mass of bril- liant scarlet bodies, jet black beneath the huge wings With their long, slender necks gracefully lowering and raising their Roman -nesed heads as they sought be- heath the water the tiny spiral shell known to scientists as 'Cerithiurn.' upon which the hainihgo lives exclusively in it's native habitat"
 The expedition gathered rnrsch valuable scientific material, not only concerning the life habits of the hafningo, but of other rare birds and fish of the Bahamas The