IV PHOENICOPTERIDAE 107 
of Central Peru, Uruguay, and perhaps Brazil, has green-grey 
metatarsi with red joints, the black on the bill reaching above the 
bend; P. (Phoeniconaias) minor, of the Ethiopian Region, Mada- 
gascar, and North-West India, is very hke P. roseus. P. (Phoeni- 
coparrus) andinus, of the Andes of Bolivia, Chili, and Argentina— 
the largest species of the Family—and P. jamesi, of South Peru 
and Chili, lack the hallux, and have the base of the bill yellow 
and the middle red, with yellow and red feet respectively. 
The young are chiefly greyish- or buffish-white, with brown 
or black markings, rarely seen beneath, and duller naked parts ; 
the adults are uniformly downy, the nestlings white and woolly. 
Flamingos are shy birds, sometimes found singly, but usually 
in immense flocks, which fly gracefully in V-shaped formations 
with alternate flapping and ghding motion, or circle around with 
outstretched neck and legs after rising with some difficulty. 
They spend their time chiefly in wading, the gait being slow and 
stiff; yet they can swim on occasion, and give evidence of their 
Anserine affinity by loud harsh cries, much resembling the 
“gageling” of Geese, and by their helpless state in late summer, 
due to the loss of the tlight-feathers. Very curious is their 
method of feeding, the head being completely inverted and directed 
backwards, as they tramp about in the shallows and seek for the 
aquatic herbage, frogs, crustaceans, molluscs, and so forth, which 
constitute their food, the lamellae of the bill acting as a sifting 
apparatus. The breeding colonies are situated on some Jake, salt 
lagoon, or “marisma ” of little depth, with bare shores, the conical 
or cylindrical mud nests being slightly hollowed at the top and 
varying in height from two to fifteen imches according to the 
amount of water. Several hundred individuals commonly breed 
together, though they not infrequently change their quarters 
annually ; they are said to fashion the nest with their feet, and lay 
one or two eggs with bluish shell and chalky incrustation, incuba- 
tion lasting four weeks or more. Mr. Abel Chapman,’ Sir Henry 
Blake,” and Mr. Maynard * have shewn that the bird sits with her 
legs doubled under her, and her head directed forwards, though 
reliable persons have asserted that the feet hung down, and 
Dampier (prior to 1683) alleged that the parent stood erect and 
covered the structure with her rump. Eges are often dropped 
1 Ibis, 1884, pp. 88, 89. 2 Nineteenth Cent. xxii. 1887, pp. 886-890. 
° Naturalist in Florida, 1884, No. 1. 
