ARGENTINE FLAMINGO 127 
bird without any traces of such marks and with a 
rose-coloured tail; and the disparity in number 
between mature and immature birds of one species 
could not well be so great as that. I have shot one 
immature specimen of the true Ajaja—so immature 
that it seemed not long out of the nest ; but the head 
was bare of feathers, and it had the knobs on the 
upper mandible, only they were so soft that they 
could be indented with the nail of the finger. Azara 
also mentions an immature bird which he obtained, 
but he does not say that the head was feathered ; 
and even this negative evidence goes a great way, 
since it would have been very unlike him to see a 
Spoonbill with a feathered head and otherwise unlike 
Ajaja rosea, and not describe it as a distinct species. 
To conclude, I may mention that the pet bird my 
friend kept was of the pale-plumaged species, and 
never lost the feathers from its head, nor did it, in 
seven years, acquire any of the characteristic marks 
of P. ajaja. 
ARGENTINE FLAMINGO 
Phenicopterus ignipalliatus 
Plumage rosy red; wing-coverts crimson; wing-feathers black ; 
bill pale red, apical half black; length 39, wing 15 inches. Female 
similar but smaller. 
THE Argentine Flamingo inhabits the whole of the 
Argentine country, down to the Rio Negro in the 
south, where I found it very abundant. The resi- 
dents told me of a breeding-place there—a shallow 
