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].)
The White Heath Aster (Aster ericoides) is an indigenous species whose distribution is given in our manuals as “Canada, Florida, and the Mississippi,” “Maine and Ontario to Florida, west to Wisconsin and Kentucky,” and “South New England to Minnesota and southward,” the variety pilosus “mainly in the Western States.” It is one of the commonest Asters throughout Ohio, occurring doubtless in every county in our State. The variety pilosus seems to be the common form in our region, and may be seen growing in rich and poor soil with almost equal thrift, and occurring in all habitats except the woods and swamps.
Its capacity for adaptation to the advance of civilization is remarkable, and this occasions the remark now very generally heard among the farmers that it is a “new weed in the region,” “not known here five years ago,” “just came all at once,” “the latest and worst weed we have,” and other expressions of similar import. As a matter of fact, the roadsides in many places are lined with it, fields with a poor stand of clover, timothy, or blue grass are completely covered with it, and all waste places, vacant lots, and neglected spots are profusely decorated with the same.
Plate 3.