IX. osTKoi.oc.v c)i' rill': flamingoes. 



(Odontocloss.k. ) 

 Family : Pn(r.NicoPTERiD.K, Sp. P. nihcr. 



Bv 1)K. R. W. SlIUFKLDT, C.M.Z.S. 



What I have to say here ui)on the osteology of this small but very 

 interesting group of birds is based upon a complete disarticulated 

 skeleton of Phcenicopterus ruber (No. 18494) belonging to the U. S. 

 National Museum, and also a fine mounted skeleton of a Flamingo in 

 the collections of the same institution of which I present a plate. P. 

 ruber has been known to occur at rare intervals in Florida, and from 

 the Florida Keys it ranges southward to an undetermined latitude. 

 Other species occur in various parts of the world, and the distinguished 

 French savants Professors Gervais and A. Milne Edwards have de- 

 scribed a number of fossil Flamingoes. P. copei has also been de- 

 scribed by the present writer, it having been discovered in the Ecpuis 

 Beds of Oregon (Tertiary U. S.). 



The great weight of opinion among the best avian taxonomers is in 

 favor of creating a distinct grouj) to contain these birds, and that its 

 place in the system is to be found between the \.xv\^ Ansercsow the one 

 hand, and Herodiones on the other. This was even the opinion of 

 Linnreus who claimed they stood " medium inter Auscres et Grallas, 

 si quis ad pr?ecedentem ordinem referat, forte non errat " {^Sxst. 

 Nat., ed. 12, I, p. 230), though he retained the Flamingo known to 

 him (P. anfiquoruin) in the latter assemblage. A century later Huxley 

 arrived at practically the same opinion, and in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London, for 1867, made a group, the Amphi- 

 morplue, to contain these birds alone, placing it immediately between 

 the Anatidie (Chenomorpha^, with Pa/a»iedea) and the herons, storks 

 and Tatihxiidcc (Pelargomorphae). Professor W. K. Parker, however, 

 has dissented from this view, saying " Professor Huxley has overstated 

 the Anserine characters of this bird [Ph(enicopterus] ; its ' basi ptery- 

 goids ' are aborted, as in the Ibises.'" 



' On the " Manus "" of Phcenicopterus, see The Ibis for April, 1889, p. 185. 



