856 BIRDs. 
bill reddish. It appears to be found in all the north of the eastern 
continent *. 
Our last genus will be that of 
Puanicorterus, Lin. 
The Flammant or Flamingos, one of the most extraordinary and the 
most isolated of all birds. Its legs are excessively long; the three an- 
terior toes are palmated to their ends, and that of the hind one is ex- 
tremely short; the neck, quite as long and slender as the legs, and its 
small head furnished with a bill whose lower mandible is an oval longitu- 
dinally bent into a semi-cylindrical canal, while the upper one, oblong and 
flat, is bent crosswise in its middle, so as to join the other exactly. The 
membranous fosse of the nostrils occupy nearly all the side of the part 
which is behind the transverse fold, and the nostrils themselves are lon- 
gitudinal slits in the base of the fosse. The edges of the two mandibles 
are furnished with small, and very delicate transverse lamin, which, 
with the fleshy thickness of the tongue, creates some affinity between 
them and the ducks. Were it not for the length of their tarsi, and the 
nudity of their legs, we might even place them among the Palmipedes. 
They feed on shell-fish, insects and the spawn of fishes, which they 
capture by means of their long neck, turning the head on one side to give 
more effect to the hook of the upper mandible. They construct in marshes 
their nest of earth, heaped up, placing themselves astride of it to hatch 
their eggs, a position to which they are forced to resort, by the length of 
their legs. The common species, 
Ph. ruber, Enl. 68 (The Red Flamingo), is from three to four 
feet in height; ash coloured, with brown streaks, during the first 
year; in the second there is a rosy hue on the wings, and in the 
third it acquires a permanent purple-red on the back, with rose-co- 
loured wings. The quills of the wing are black; the bill yellow, 
with a black tip, and the feet brown. 
This species is found in all parts of the eastern continent below 
forty degrees. Numerous flocks are seen on the southern coast of 
France, and they sometimes ascend as far as the Rhine. 
M. Temminck thinks that the American Flamingo, which is altogether 
of a bright red, Wils. VIII, 66, and Catesb. 73, is a different species 
from that of Europe (a). 
* Glareola nevia, Gm., is the young of the common species. See Leach, Lin- 
Trans. XIII, pl. xii, £2. Add Glar. australis, Leach, loc. cit. pl. xiv, or Glar. isa- 
bella, Vieill. Gal. 263;—Glar. orientalis, Leach, XI111;—Glar. lactea, Tem. Col. 399. 
(a) fesr Dr. M‘ Murtrie, an American Naturalist, observes, that Temminck 
has positively ascertained that the Flamingo of America is different from that of 
Europe. The latter he calls Phen. antiquorum, but the American species Ph. ruber. 
—En«. Ep. 
