32 Phmnicopterus Minor. 



These remarks and the accompanying- fig-nres considerahly 

 puzzled me^ because my specimen was clearly Minor ; the plum- 

 ag-e moreover was by no means so brilliant as was described by 

 Captain Fielden, the breast especially being- simply a delicate 

 pale rose color, entirely devoid of the dark red pink mottling- 

 described by him. 



The only conclusion I could come to was that both Minor and 

 Bnhidus occurred in India. I however shewed the bird to Mr. 

 K. M. Adam who is in charg-e of the Sarabhur Lake, and owing' 

 to his kindness, I am now in a posi ion to solve the mystery. 



The facts are simply these : jP. Minor is the male, P. Ruhidus, 

 the female j my bird was in the cold weather, while Captain 

 Fielden^s specimens were in the full breeding- pluraag-e. 



The following- note by Mr. Adam on the occurrence of this 

 species at our Indian "Great Salt Lake," Sambhur, will, I feel 

 sure, be read with great interest : 



"Althoug-h I have constantly been on the watch for the small 

 red Indian flamingo, similar to one shewn me in Mr. Hume^s 

 Collection, and have constantly scrutinized the immense flocks 

 of flaming-oes which for the g-reater part of the year frequent the 

 Sambhur Lake, my endeavours were entirelv unsuccessful until 

 the 25th of January, 1872. On that date I obtained a very g-ood 

 specimen and' on the 29th, I procured another, but this was 

 too badly mauled to be preserved. On the 24th of Febru- 

 ary, when examining- the salt-works, well out into the bed of 

 tlie lake, I saw another specimen among-st a flock of 

 P. Rosens, but it was far out of shot. However, before the 

 close of the month, two more specimens were shot for me. 

 In the month of March and beginnino" of April, no effort 

 was spared to obtain more specimens ; but althoug-h flocks vary- 

 ing- in number from 100 to 300 of the species were observed, 

 they kept too far out into the bed of the lake for any one to g-et 

 at them. I may here note that the brilliant rosy plumag-e of the 

 bird, to say nothing of the smaller size, made it quite easily dis- 

 tinguishable with a pair of Innoculars frona P. Rosens. To- 

 wards the middle and end of April, all the flamingoes, large and 

 small, left the lake; but about the beginning of May several 

 pretty large flocks, consisting solely of the smaller species made 

 their appearance. I carefully examined one or two of these 

 flocks with my binoculars, but failed to distinguish a single 

 specimen of P. Uosem amongst them. On the 20th of Ma}^, 

 three specimens were canght by Customs peons, near the edge of 

 the lake. Their legs and feet were much swollen and blistered 

 and they could not fly. As the lake-bed at this time contained 

 only a concentrated solution of brine, and the thermometer 



