Zoologically, the flamingo is the most odd and interesting bird on the American continent except the emperor penguin.  Its beak baffles description, its long legs and webbed feet are a joke, its nesting habits are amazing, and its food habits the despair of most zoological-garden keepers.  Millions of flamingos inhabit the shores of a number of small lakes in the interior of equatorial East Africa, but that species is not brilliant scarlet all over the neck and head, as is the case with our species.

If the American flamingo, scarlet ibis and roseate spoonbill, one or all of them, are to be saved from total extinction, efforts must be made in each of the countries in which they breed and live.  Their preservation is distinctly a burden upon the countries of South America that lie eastward of the Andes, and on Yucatan, Cuba and the Bahamas.  The time has come when the Government of the Bahama Islands should sternly forbid the killing of any more flamingos, on any pretext whatever; and if the capture of living specimens for exhibition purposes militates against the welfare of the colonies, they should forbid that also.

THE UPLAND PLOVER, OR “BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER.”—­Apparently this is the next shore-bird species that will follow the Eskimo curlew into oblivion.  Four years ago,—­a long period for a species that is on the edge of extermination,—­Mr. E.H.  Forbush[B] wrote of it as follows: 

“The Bartramian Sandpiper, commonly known as the Upland Plover, a bird which formerly bred on grassy hills all over the State and migrated southward along our coasts in great flocks, is in imminent danger of extirpation.  A few still breed in Worcester and Berkshire Counties, or Nantucket, so there is still a nucleus which, if protected, may save the species.  Five reports from localities where this bird formerly bred give it as nearing extinction, and four as extinct.  This is one of the most useful of all birds in grass land, feeding largely on grasshoppers and cutworms.  It is one of the finest of all birds for the table.  An effort should be made at once to save this useful species.”

[Footnote B:  “Special Report on the Decrease of Certain Birds, and its Causes.”—­Mass.  State Board of Agriculture, 1908.]

THE BLACK-CAPPED PETREL, (Aestrelata hasitata).—­This species is already recorded in the A.O.U.  “Check list” as extinct; but it appears that this may not as yet be absolutely true.  On January 1, 1912, a strange thing happened.  A much battered and exhausted black-capped petrel was picked up alive in Central Park, New York, taken to the menagerie, and kept there during the few days that it survived.  When it died it was sent to the American Museum; and this may easily prove to be the last living record for that species.  In reality, this species might as well be listed with those totally extinct.  Formerly it ranged from the Antilles to Ohio and Ontario, and the causes of its blotting out are not yet definitely known.