410 PBXENICOPTERLDjE. 



1576. Phcenicopterus minor. The Lesser Flamingo. 



Phoenicopterus minor, Geoff")'. Bull. Soc. Philom. i, 2, p. 98, figs. 1, 2, 

 3 (1798) ; Temm. PL Col. pi. 419 ; Jerdon, Mad. Jour. L. S. xii, 

 p. 217 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 174 ; Jerdon, Ibis, 1869, p. 231 ; Hume, 

 ibid. p. 355 ; id. S. F. i, pp. 31, 258 ; Adam, S. F. i, p. 400 ; ii, 

 p. 339 ; Hume, S. F. iv, p. 25 ; id. Cat. no. 944 bis ; Butler, S. F. 

 ix, p. 436 ; Hume, S. F. x, p. 513 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 393. 



Phoenicopterus blythi, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii, p. 146 (1857). 



Phoenicopterus rubidus, Feilden, Ibis, 1868, p. 496; G. R. Gray, 

 Ibis, 1869, p. 442. 



Phceniconaias minor, Salvadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 18 ; Baker, 

 Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. xi, p. 8. 



Coloration. Head, neck, and body rosy pink, feathers round base 

 of bill tinged with crimson ; old birds have crimson central patches 

 on the feathers of the back and breast ; median wing-coverts 

 crimson with pale pink edges ; other wing-coverts rosy, except the 

 greater under wing-coverts, which, like the primaries and second- 

 aries, are black ; tertiaries and tail-feathers tinged with rosy ; 

 axiilaries crimson. 



In young birds the head, neck, and breast are pale dusky ashy, 

 abdomen and lower tail-coverts white ; primaries black ; wing- 

 coverts brown, dark-shafted ; back brown, with pale edges to the 

 feathers ; wing-lining pale rose. 



Bill claret-colour at base, shading off to lake, with the tip black ; 

 irides golden yellow, with an outer ring of orange-scarlet ; legs and 

 feet blood-red. 



Length of males about 33 ; tail 4*5 ; wing 13'5 ; tarsus 8 ; bill 

 from gape to point straight, 3- 7 : females are smaller, wing 13 ; 

 tarsus 7*5. 



Distribution. Eastern Africa and Madagascar, occurring occasion- 

 ally in North-western India and the Peninsula, sometimes at 

 Sambhar in large numbers, but irregularly, and apparently at all 

 seasons. This Flamingo is not known to breed in India, though 

 it occasionally lays eggs irregularly in May. 



