SiiL'i'Ki.iJi' ; Osteology ov i\ui I'Laminc.cjks. 305 



eyeball have been lost, so I am at present unable to record anything 

 about them. This also applies to the intrinsic bonelets of the mitldle 

 ear, and still more unfortunately to the ossifications of the hyoidean 

 apj)aratus. 



For the most part, the skull of the Flamingo, including the man- 

 dible, is highly pneumatic ; even more so than it is in many geese, as 

 for example, in Beniicla. From ijuadrates to apices, the osseous 

 mandibles of Phivnicoptcnis are more or less closely in contact when 

 thus articulated /// situ ; this is esjjecially the case for the anterior 

 moieties of the dentary i)ortion, and as it is known, these are the parts 

 of the beak, i)rinci|)ally used by the bird in the seizure of its food, 

 taking it in a manner as it does, different from that of any other 

 member of the class Aves — for with neck bent down, and head com- 

 pletely upside down — the flat anterior surface of the superior man- 

 dible is brought opposite to the bottom of the water where the indi- 

 vidual may be feeding, while the mandible or lower jaw is above, oc- 

 cupying the position of the upper Jaio in representatives of other 

 groups while thus occupied. 



In its external narial apertures; in the possession of supraorbital 

 glandular depressions ; to a small degree in its lacrymal bones ; in the 

 posterior aspect of its skull (generally); in its quadrates; in the 

 possession of large recurved processes at the mandibular angles — the 

 skull of the Flamingo is more or less anserine in character. But on 

 the other hand, in its pterygoids ; in some respects in its palatines ; 

 to some degree in its vomer ; and in some other mitior points, the 

 skull of this bird is more or less ibidine in character. Finally, the 

 skull of Phoenicopterus has a number of characters strictly peculiar to 

 itself — but these have already been sufficiently dwelt upon above. I 

 have also carefully compared the skull of Phoenicopterus with the skulls 

 of an Ardca ; with Tantalus; a stork; and with AJaJa, but in this 

 part of its skeleton, I am convinced that it comes nearer the typical 

 Ibises than it does any of these other groups or genera. To be sure it 

 has a character here and there in its skull that more or less closely 

 resembles a corresponding one, say in the skull of the heron, or 

 another in a stork, but to me the ibis-characters seem to i)redom- 

 inate. 



On the Remainder of the Axial Skeleton. — There are 43 vertebrix; and 

 a pygostyle in the vertebral chain of the trunk skeleton of Phtvnicop- 

 tcrus ruber. Of these, the first 18, counting from the atlas backwards, 



