390 ANSERES. ANATID^E. 



ORDER. ANSERES. (Swimmers.) 

 FAM. ANATIDJE. (The DucJcs.) 



RED FLAMINGO.* 



Pkcenicopteriis ruber. LINN. 



Aud.pl. 416. 



THE dimensions given below are from a specimen 

 shot on the beach at Negril, in March 1764 ; from 

 the Doctor's description, it seems to have been 

 scarcely mature. He adds, "I once saw a living 

 one at Kingston. Its food was white bread steeped 

 in water in a washing basin. In feeding, it im- 

 merged its upper mandible in the bottom of the 

 basin, resting on the elbow or angle of that man- 

 dible, and by quick repeated motions, like those of a 

 duck in the mud, sucked up the finest parts of the 

 dissolving bread." 



As I have never met with this beautiful bird in 

 Jamaica, I am the more obliged for the following 

 memoir from the pen of my kind friend, Mr. Hill. 

 " I believe the Flamingo is never seen now upon our 

 coasts, but as a solitary bird, or, at most, associated 

 with three or four companions, when they make 

 excursions in small groups, preparatory to pairing 



* " Length from beak to toes extended 62 inches, expanse 57, tail 5 

 beak 5, neck 23, leg [tarsus] 11, middle toe 3, hind toe ^" 

 MSS.) 



