The O. S. U. Naturalist, Vol. 1, No. 2, December, 1900Ohio State University. Biological Club
History
The O. S. U. Naturalist, Vol. 1, No. 2, December, 1900
Ohio State University. Biological Club
Natural history -- Ohio -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
I remember the first time I walked over one of their favorite
resorts. It was on the Pudeto river, near the small town of Ancud.
The tides here are rather high owing to the formation of the bay, and
as a consequence it enters the river and floods great stretches of
sand that border the left bank. As the tide goes out the flamingos
may be seen here by hundreds. The first time I visited the place the
tide had been out some hours and there were no birds to be seen. I
was disappointed for the trip had been made for that special purpose.
However my attention was soon attracted to long rows of small
hillocks of sand, or rather, to be more exact, circular ditches in
the sand that appeared to have been made while the water was still
present. These were about two or two and one-half feet in diameter
by five or six inches wide and three or four inches deep. This, of
course, gave the central portion the appearance of a small hill about
eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. Upon inquiry I could get no
information—no one had any idea how or by whom they had been made.
A few days later the mystery was solved when a second visit was made
to the place at a more propitious moment.
Upon approaching to within a few hundred yards of where a regiment of
these scarlet beauties was lined up, the birds took flight and it was
then that I discovered who were the authors of my mysterious little
hills.
By subsequent observations I found that the birds took their stand
in the water when it was about a foot and a half deep, and at more
or less regular intervals about eight or ten feet apart. Here they
remained stationary and turned round and round with their heads under
water, catching the small crustaceans that seem to be their principal
diet. The form of their beak is such that when it is placed on the
ground the upper mandible is underneath. This being large and strong,
soon opens up the circular depression that first called my attention.
Before the tide is all out they usually leave because the crustaceans
have by this time hidden in the sand.
The flamingo frequents this coast only during the winter months and
consequently does not nest here, nor is it known to nest west of the
Andes mountains. Their nests and young, however, have been observed
in great numbers in the small lakes of brackish water that abound
on the plains of Patagonia east of the mountains. Undoubtedly these
are the same birds that spend their winters in Chile, the lofty
Andes proving no barrier to their flight. There are many roads by
which they can pass, the mountains being intercepted by frequent
rivers that empty into the Pacific, and have their origin beyond the
snow-covered Andes, in the plains of the Argentine Republic.
AGGRESSIVE CHARACTER AND ECONOMIC ASPECT OF THE WHITE HEATH ASTER.
W. A. KELLERMAN.
(Plate 3.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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