FLAMINGO. 



composed of from four to seven sepals, slightly at- 

 tached at the base. Petals equal in number to the 

 sepals, and placed alternately with them. The 

 stamens are equal to the sepals in number ; and occa- 

 sionally changed into nectariferous scales ; anthers 

 free and two-celled. Germen free, roundish ; sessile 

 one-celled, ovules many. Fruit is one-celled, baccate 

 or capsular, and filled with a soft pulp. 



Flficourtia ramontchi is the Madagascar plum, so 

 called from the resemblance of its fruit to ordinary 

 prunes. The fruit of other species, such as F. sapida, 

 inermis, sepiaria, cataphracta, &c., are also eatable, and 

 the young shoots of the latter, which have an astrin- 

 gent bitter taste, are esteemed as a good stomachic 

 medicine. 



FLAMINGO (Phcenicopterus). A very peculiar 

 genus of birds, forming one of the groups which Cuvier 

 has brought together, as detached from his regular 

 division of Echassiers, or stilt birds, and which indeed 

 differ so much from all other birds in some particu- 

 lars, that they form a very small but very peculiar 

 group, which can neither be classed with any of the 

 rest, nor described by any common character. Cuvier 

 himself describes the flamingo as " one of the most 

 extraordinary and most isolated of all birds. The 

 legs, of an excessive length, have the three front toes 

 palmated to the end, and the hind one extremely 

 short. The neck, not less long nor less slender than 

 the legs, and the small head supports a bill, whose 

 lower mandible is an oval, bent longitudinally into a 

 semi-cylindrical canal, while the upper one, oblong 

 and flat, is bent crosswise in its centre to join the 

 other exactly. The membranous foss of the nostrils 

 occupies almost the entire side of the part which is 

 behind the transverse bend, and the nostrils them- 

 selves are a longitudinal cleft of the lower part of the 

 foss. The edges of the two mandibles are furnished 

 with small and very fine transverse laminae, which, 

 joined to the fleshy thickness of the tongue, gives to 

 these birds some analogy with the ducks. The flam- 

 ingos might even be placed among the palmipedes, 

 but for the length of the tarsi and nakedness of the 

 legs. They live on shell fish, insects, and fishes' eggs, 

 which they get by means of their long neck, and by 

 turning their head round to employ with advantage 

 the crook of their upper bill. They build in the 

 marshes a nest of raised earth, on which they rest 

 astride to watch their eggs, as their long necks hinder 

 them from adopting any other position." 



The generic characters are : the bill thick, strong, 

 higher than broad, toothed, conical towards the point, 

 miked at the base, upper mandible abruptly inflected, 

 and bent down on the under at the lip ; the under 

 broader than the upper ; nostrils longitudinally placed 

 in the middle of the bill, and covered by a membrane ; 

 legs very long, with three toes before, and a very 

 short one articulated high on the tarsus behind, the 

 fore toes connected by a web which reaches to the 

 claws ; wings middle-sized. 



The principal species of this singular genu?, the 

 RED FLAMINGO (Phcenicopterus ruber,) of which 

 the general colour is red, and the quills of the wings 

 deep black, or if there be two, as is stated by some 

 ornithologists, they appear to be but little different, 

 except in size. The bird when full grown is not so 

 big as a goose in the body, but it has the neck and 

 legs longer in proportion to its general size and 

 weight, than those of any other bird. The length 

 from the tip of the bill to the extremity of the tail is 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



497 



about four feet, or only three or four inches more ; 

 but when the legs are stretched out, the length from 



the bill to their extremity exceeds six feet. The 



Flamingo. ' 



neck is slender, and of an immoderate length ; the 

 tongue, which is large and fleshy, fills the cavity of 

 the bill, has a sharp cartilaginous tip, is furnished 

 with twelve or more hooked papillae on each side, 

 which bend backwards, and has a ball of fat at the 

 root, which epicures reckon a great delicacy. The 

 bird, when in full plumage, which it does not attain 

 till its fourth year, has the head, neck, tail and under 

 parts of a beautiful rose red, the wings of a vivid or 

 scarlet red, the back and scapulars rose-red, and the 

 legs rosaceous. The young, before moulting, have 

 their plumage cinereous, and a considerable portion 

 of black on the secondaries of the wings and tail ; at 

 the expiration of the first year, they are of a dirty- 

 white, with the secondaries of the wings of a blackish 

 brown, edged with white ; the wing-coverts at their 

 origin white, faintly shaded with rose colour, but ter- 

 minated with black, and the white feathers of the tail 

 irregularly spotted with bluish brown. At two years 

 of age the pink on the wings acquires more intensity. 

 In all places of the world where flamingos are met 

 with, they are highly interesting and characteristic 

 birds, the'ir great extent, their singular shape, their 

 brilliant colours, and the sunny skies under which the 

 generality of them sport over the broad waters, are 

 all calculated deeply to interest, and widely to gratify 

 the observer of nature. They are, generally speak- 

 ing, birds of warm climates and rich places ; but they 

 are not wholly confined to the regions within the tro- 

 pics. They are met with in the warmer parts of the 

 continent, but they do not appear in any case to 

 range more polarly than about the fortieth degree of 

 latitude. They are common on the African coast, 

 and the islands adjacent to the Cape of Good Hope, 



