FLAMINGO 257 
main body, and appear in various unwonted spots.t On the wing 
the Flamingo is described as presenting a singular appearance, its 
neck and legs being stretched out in a continuous straight line. 
When feeding or at rest, a flock of these birds, owing to their red 
plumage, has often been likened to a body of British soldiers. The 
young appear to be a long time in arriving at the full beauty of 
their plumage, and as the sexes are said to differ greatly in size, 
some of the difficulties which the determination of species in this 
genus presents may be excused. No fewer than four species of 
Phenicopterus have been described as inhabiting the Old World. 
There is the large bird known to the ancients, Temminck’s P. anti- 
quorum, which certainly ranges from the Cape Verd Islands to the 
Caspian and to India, if not further. The P. erythreus of Jules 
Verreaux has been described as differing in its brighter plumage, 
and is supposed to be a native of Southern and Western Africa, but 
it is also said to have strayed to Europe. Then two smaller species 
(P. minor, Geoffroy, and P. rubidus, Feilden)—the one from Africa 
the other from India—have also been described, but whether their 
existence can be substantiated remains to be seen. Four species 
have likewise been indicated as belonging to the New World. 
There is first a large and very brilliantly-coloured bird to which 
the Linnean name P. ruber? has been continued, inhabiting suitable 
localities from Florida southwards to an undetermined latitude. 
To this species Mr. Salvin (Zrans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 498) refers the 
P. glyphorhynchus of G. R. Gray, founded on a specimen from the 
Galapagos. Then there is the P. chilensis of Gmelin (P. ignipalliatus 
of later writers), in colouring more like the European species, and 
found in various parts of South America. Lastly comes the P. andinus 
of Philippi, easily distinguished from all others through the want 
of a back-toe, and regarded by Bonaparte as meriting generic 
separation under the name of Phenicoparrus. ‘This appears to have 
its home on the salt-lakes of the elevated desert of Atacama. 
The fossil remains of a Flamingo have been recognized from 
Lower and Middle Tertiary beds in France, and the species, which 
appears to have been very close to that commonly called P. anti- 
quorum, has received the name of P. croizeti from Prof. Gervais. 
But a more interesting discovery is that by Prof. A. Milne- 
Edwards of no fewer than five species of an extinct form of 
Phenicopteride, named by him Palzlodus (Ois. Moss. de la France, i. 
p. 58). These are from lacustrine deposits of the Miocene epoch. 
1 The Flamingo has been added by Mr. Saunders to the “British” list (Yarrell, 
Br, B. ed. 4, iv. p. 244) from examples observed at several places in England ; but 
the evidence to shew that these were voluntary visitors is weak. 
2 Linneus referred all the accounts of Flamingos known to him to a single 
species, under this name, wherein he was decidedly wrong, but the reason for 
assigning it to an American species has yet to be explained by ornithologists, 
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