Flamingos 165 



THE FLAMINGOS 



(Suborder Phcenicoptert) 



Very peculiar birds indeed are these we shall now consider, having a rosy or 

 bright scarlet plumage, extraordinarily long legs and neck, and a large bill that is 

 bent abruptly downward in the middle as though deformed. Associated with 

 these obvious characters are other more or less anomalous features which have 

 rendered their systematic position subject to not a little difference of opinion. 

 Some authorities, as for example Garrod, have placed them among the gallina- 

 ceous birds, while others associated them with the Anseres, or Ducks and Geese, 

 and still others incline to the view expressed by Huxley, who says that the group 

 is " so completely intermediate between the Anseres on the one side, and the Storks 

 and Herons on the other, that it can be ranged with neither." Shufeldt, who has 

 very recently studied the osteology of the group, agrees entirely with Huxley, 

 but Gadow, whom we are following, as well as Beddard and others, regards the 

 points of agreement between the Flamingos and the Storks and Ibises as on 

 the whole more numerous than with Ducks and Geese, and consequently ranges 

 them as a suborder of the Stork-like birds (Ciconiiformes), which is immediately 

 followed by the order containing the Ducks, Geese, etc. It appears that more 

 complete knowledge of their ancestors and life will be necessary before their 

 position can be absolutely fixed. In any event it is beyond question that the 

 Flamingos are a very ancient group, since nearly three times as many fossil 

 forms are known as have been recognized as now living. The oldest of these 

 fossil forms comes from the upper Cretaceous of Denmark ; the others are mainly 

 from the middle and late Tertiary of Europe, with a single Pliocene form (Phce- 

 nicopterus copei) from central Oregon, which is very closely allied to our 

 living species (P. ruber). 



Although long legs and necks are a prominent feature among the Herons, 

 Storks, Ibises, etc., none of them makes such peculiar use of these members as 

 the Flamingos are reputed to do. The long neck of the Flamingo is not pro- 

 duced by an excessive multiplication of vertebrae, for there are only eighteen, but 

 by the great lengthening of the individual bones. The form of the bill is unique 

 among birds. Stejneger well describes the lower mandible as "a deep and broad 

 box, into which the upper one, which is much lower and narrower, fits like a lid ; 

 the sides are provided with quite Duck-like lamellae ; and, to complete the odd- 

 ness of the structure, both mandibles at the middle are bent abruptly down- 

 wards." In feeding the Flamingos reverse the usual position of the head until 

 the bent portion of the bill is parallel with the surface of the ground, thus work- 

 ing backward instead of forward as in other birds. They frequent shallow, 

 preferably salt-water, marshes and lagoons, and their food consists of small 

 mollusks, crustaceans, and vegetable matter, which they secure by exploring 

 around in the soft mud much after the manner of Ducks, the water running out 

 between the ridges of the bill. Hudson, who saw them in Patagonia, says that 

 while feeding "the noise made by their beaks was continuous and resembled 



