254 



FLAMINGO 



scientific names are now used in a general sense. The true posi- 

 tion of the Flamingos {Phoenicopteridse) has been much debated, and 

 ornithologists are as yet by no means agreed upon it. Prof. 

 Huxley {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 460) considered the form "so 

 completely intermediate between the Anserine birds on the one 



'"■^^^^^^^-^-- 



Flamingo. 



side, and the Storks and Herons on the other, that it can be ranged 

 with neither." ^ And he put it by itself as the type of a group 

 Amphimorph.e under the larger assemblage of Desmognath.e. 

 To Prof. Fiirbringer and Dr. Gadow its affinity to the Spoonbills, 



1 Thus confirming the opinion of Linnaeus a century old {S7jst. Nat. ed. 12, i. 

 p. 230) :— "Medium inter Anscrcs et (Dallas, si quis ad pracedentem ordinem 

 referat, forte non errat." He himself places it among the latter. 



