GENUS ST. PHCENICOPTERUS. FLAMINGO. 

 SPECIES. P. RUBER. 



RED FLAMINGO. 

 [Plate LXVI. Fig. 4.] 



Le Flammant, BRISS. vt, p. 533, pi. 47, fig. 1. BUFF. viu,p. 475, 

 pi. 39. PL Enl. 63. LATH. 8yn. m, p. 299 Arct. Zool. JVo. 

 422. CATESBY, i, pi. 73, 74. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 3545, bird 

 of the first year; JVo. 3546, bird of the second year. 



THIS very singular species being occasionally seen on the 

 southern frontiers of the United States, and on the peninsula of 

 East Florida, where it is more common, has a claim to a niche 

 in our Ornithological Museum, although the author regrets that 

 from personal observation he can add nothing to the particulars 

 of its history, already fully detailed in various European works. 

 From the most respectable of these, The Synopsis of Dr. Lath- 

 am, he has collected such particulars as appear authentic and 

 interesting. 



"This remarkable bird has the neck and legs in a greater 

 disproportion than any other bird, the length from the end of 

 the bill to that of the tail is four feet two or three inches, but 

 to the end of the claws measures sometimes more than six feet. 

 The bill is four inches and a quarter long, and of a construction 

 different from that of any other bird; the upper mandible very 

 thin and flat, and somewhat moveable; the under thick, both 

 of them bending downwards from the middle; the nostrils are 

 linear, and placed in a blackish membrane; the end of the bill 

 as far as the bend is black, from thence to the base reddish yel- 

 low, round the base quite to the eye covered with a flesh col- 

 oured cere; the neck is slender, and of a great length; the tongue 

 large, fleshy, filling the cavity of the bill, furnished with twelve 

 or more hooked papillae on each side, turning backwards; the 



