288 THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA. 



f i PHQENICOPTERI. 



Phcenicopteridce. Flamingoes. They appear to feed on 

 various minute animal and vegetable substances which they find 

 n fchs soft mud of the lakes and salt water lagoons they 

 frequent. Jerd. B. I. Ill, 774. 



Aquatic herbage, frogs, crustaceans, molluscs, and so forth. 

 E. B. C. N. H., 107. 



1575. Phoenicopterus roseus. Common Flamingo. It feeds 

 on minute molluscs, small insects and Crustacea, worms, &c., 

 which it scoops up by its inverted bill. I have however generally 

 found some mud in the stomachs of those I have examined. 

 It also eats confervas, and other soft vegetable matter, and in 

 confinement, will eat bran mixed with water, boiled rice, &c. 

 Jerd. B. I. Ill, 776. 



The food of flamingoes consists, according to most authors, 

 partly of small crustaceans, worms, and insects, with larvae and 

 ova, partly of vegetable matter, but Gadow says essentially of 

 organic slime, confervae. F. I. IV, 409. 



What they actually feed on is not at all well known- a 

 considerable part of their diet is vegetarian, but they are also 

 in all probably far more given to animal food than has generally 



been believed to be the case. Mr. Eagle Clarke (Rhone 



delta) almost entirely, if not quite, on a tiny Phyllopod, the 

 brine-shrimp (Artemia salina), which he states is found there in 

 marvellous abundance. S. B. I. D. A., 6. 



Vegetarian largely : small phyllopod : shrimps (Artemia salina . 

 B. N. H. S. J. XI, 7. 



ANSERES. 

 SWANS, GEESE AND DUCKS. 



Fam. AnatidcB. 



They feed on mud flats, and beds of such food plants as Zos- 

 tera (Grasswrack). The usual food is vegetable consisting of 



