328 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
skin, and the margins of the mandibles are furnished with 
lamella or ridges, with which the food is sifted from the water 
and soft mud in which the birds find their living. 
Only one species is found in Ceylon. 
PHGNICOPTERUS ROSEUS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 408; 
Legge, p. 1092). 
The Common Flamingo. 
Description.—The whole plumage, except the wings, white, 
tinged more or less with rose-pink ; the greater portion of the 
wing coverts and tertiaries almost scarlet; primary and 
secondary quills black ; the axillaries and edge of the wing 
lining scarlet ; the rest of the wing lining largely black. 
Young birds are grayish-white on the head, neck, and body, 
the axillaries being the only feathers tinged with pink ; the 
wing coverts mainly brown with dark shaft-stripes ; wing 
quills brown. Bill flesh-coloured, black at the tip; naked 
facial skin whitish-pink ; iris yellow ; legs and feet pinkish- 
red ; claws black. 
Size variable. Males: length about 50; wing 17; tail 6; 
tarsus 14; bill from gape 4°5. Females: length about 40; 
wing 15; tail 5; tarsus 10°5; bill from gape 4. 
Distribution. Found in large flocks on lagoons and the 
open coast round the dry zone from Puttalam, by Jaffna, to 
Hambantota ; common about salt lakes in north-west India, 
and met with round the Indian coast as far as Bengal, 
but not in Burma. The species ranges throughout Africa, 
Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia as far 
east as India. 
Habits.—Most of our birds are migrants arriving in October 
and leaving in April, but some immature birds may remain 
all the year round, and there are traditions, which, however, 
have never been verified, that a breeding place lies in the 
extreme south of the Eastern Province. The nest is a mound 
of mud, raised a few inches above the surface of a shallow 
lagoon, and hollowed at the top. 
The birds breed in colonies. Two chalky-white eggs are 
laid, measuring about 3°50 by 2°50. 

