FLAMINGO 257 



main body, and appear in various unwonted spots.^ On the wing 

 the Flamingo is described as presenting a singular appearance, its 

 neck and legs being stretched out in a continuous straight line. 

 When feeding or at rest, a flock of these birds, owing to their red 

 plumage, has often been likened to a body of British soldiers. The 

 young appear to be a long time in arriving at the full beauty of 

 their plumage, and as the sexes are said to diff'er greatly in size, 

 some of the difficulties which the determination of species in this 

 genus presents may be excused. No fewer than four species of 

 Phcenicopterus have been described as inhabiting the Old World. 

 There is the large bird known to the ancients, Temminck's P. anti- 

 quorum, which certainly ranges from the Cape Verd Islands to the 

 Caspian and to India, if not further. The P. erythrmis of Jules 

 V^erreaux has been described as diftering in its brighter plumage, 

 and is supposed to be a native of Southern and Western Africa, but 

 it is also said to have strayed to Eiu'ope. Then two smaller species 

 (P. mmoi; Geoftroy, and P. rubidiis, Feilden) — the one from Africa 

 the other from India — have also been described, but whether their 

 existence can be substantiated remains to be seen. Four species 

 have likewise been indicated as belonging to the New World. 

 There is first a large and very brilliantly-coloured bird to which 

 the Linnaean name P. ruber ^ has been continued, inhabiting suitable 

 localities from Florida southwards to an undetermined latitude. 

 To this species Mr. Salvin (Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 498) refers the 

 P. glyphorhynchus of G. K. Gray, founded on a specimen from the 

 Galapagos. Then there is the P. chilensis of Gmelin (P. ir/rdpalliatus 

 of later writers), in colouring more like the European species, and 

 found in various parts of South America. Lastly comes the P. cmdinns 

 of Philippi, easily distinguished from all others through the want 

 of a back-toe, and regarded by Bonaparte as meriting generic 

 separation under the name of Phmnicoparrus. This appears to have 

 its home on the salt-lakes of the elevated desert of Atacama. 



The fossil remains of a Flamingo have been recognized from 

 Lower and Middle Tertiary beds in France, and the species, which 

 appears to have been very close to that commonly called P. anti- 

 quorum, has received the name of P. croizeti from Prof. Gervais. 

 But a more interesting discovery is that by Prof. A. Milne- 

 Edwards of no fewer than five species of an extinct form of 

 Phcenicopteridx, named by him Palselodns (Ois. Foss. de la France, ii. 

 p. 58). These are from lacustrine deposits of the Miocene epoch. 



^ The Flamingo has been added by Mr. Saunders to the "British" list (Yarrell, 

 Br. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 244) from examples observed at several places in England ; but 

 the evidence to shew that these were voluntary visitors is weak. 



2 Linnaeus referred all the accounts of Flamingos known to him to a single 

 species, under this name, wherein he was decidedly wrong, but the reason for 

 assigning it to an American species has yet to be explained by ornithologists. 



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