IV PHOENICOPTERIDAE—PALAELODIDAE 105 
secondaries, and elongated straw-yellow plumes on the fore-neck 
in the nuptial period; the naked forehead, ocular region, throat, 
bill, and feet being yellow ; while a black line separates the gorge 
from the feathered parts in the adult. Ajaja rosea of tropical 
America, which reaches the South-East United States, is rose- 
pink, with white neck, back, and breast, pinkish-buff tail, and 
carmine wing- and tail-coverts ; the. bare head is yellowish-green, 
the orbits and throat are orange, the bill is greenish-blue with 
grey and black base, the feet are crimson, while a curly pink tuft 
is developed on the fore-neck in the breeding season. 
The female Spoonbill is hke the male. The young seem to be 
duller, with no crest or ornamental plumes ; in some cases the prim- 
aries are tipped with black, in Ajaja the head is entirely feathered. 
Of fossil forms, Zbidopsis occurs in the Upper Eocene of England, 
This and Ibidopodia, the latter of which connects the Ibises with 
the Storks, in the Miocene of France, /bis also in that of Bavaria, 
Protibis in that of Patagonia, Platalea in the Queensland drifts. 
Fams. X.-XI. The Sub-Order PHOENICOPTERI, including the 
Phoenicopteridae or Flamingos and the extinct Palaelodidae, 
stands midway between the Storks and the Geese, having been on 
that account termed AMPHIMORPHAE by Huxley, a term equivalent to 
the ODONTOGLOSSAE of Nitzsch. The extraordinary Flamingos have 
very long slender necks and unwieldy-looking bills, high at the base 
and abruptly bent down in the middle, the maxilla being highly 
movable and in some cases smaller than the nearly immovable 
grooved mandible—a condition of affairs seldom found elsewhere, 
and correlated with the peculiar method of feeding. As in the 
Anseres, the beak—which is short and straight in the young 
—1is covered with a soft membrane, and ends in a black nail-like 
process rich in nerves, the margins being furnished in the adult 
with horny lamellae. The legs are unusually long, with nearly 
bare tibiae and laterally compressed metatarsi, covered with 
broad seutes which become smaller posteriorly; the hallux is 
absent or somewhat elevated and reduced, while the short anterior 
toes are fully webbed and have flat stunted claws. The wing is 
fairly long, with twelve primaries and about twenty-two second- 
aries; the tail is even, with fourteen small weak rectrices. The 
furcula is U-shaped, the nostrils are pervious, the tongue is thick, 
an aftershaft is present, and the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial. 
Phoenicopterus ruber, ranging from Florida to Para and the Gala- 
