34 Phosnkoptenis Minor. 



extreme brilliancy of fclie plumag'e in Jnly, and from other signs 

 noticed on dissection by Mr. Adam, that tliey mnst breed in 

 Aug-nst. They do not, I think^ breed in this country, certainly, I 

 think I may say^ neither in the Punjab, Rajpootana, or Sindh, and 

 they have iiever yet been observed at all in either Oude, Bengal, 

 the North-West, or Central Provinces, but it is still possible that 

 they may breed in some of the salt lagoons, along the Western 

 Coast, though my own conviction is that they nest in Africa. 



What induces large flocks of these birds to visit the Sambhur 

 Lake, which contains, as far as I have ever been able to discover, 

 neither vegetable nor animal life (excepting one species of animal- 

 culi,) and more especially at a season when the brine is a tho- 

 roughly saturated solution, coating a stick dipped into it for a 

 minute even with fine crystals of salt, is certainly a mystery. 

 All through the cold season, and well into the beginning of the 

 hot weather, this lake is thronged with the large flamingoes, 

 waders, ducks, and gulls, (which latter fly off every morning 

 about 9 o'clock, to drink at a small adjoining piece of fresh 

 water,) which apparently feed on these animalculi ; but when 

 the brine reaches a certain stage of concentration, these give out 

 their eg'gs and die, and then the lake is entirely deserted, except, 

 as it would now appear^ by P. Minor. The strangest thing of 

 all perhaps is that they should remain there to burn and bruise 

 their legs in the way described by Mr. Adam. It is curious, by 

 the way, how often one shoots flamingoes with ulcerated, blister- 

 ed, and sore legs, I remember that one bright genius (though 

 I forget who he was) gravely asserted in print that this was 

 due to the birds sitting on their nests with their legs hanging 

 down in the water, and the barnacles attaching themselves to 

 the same ; but I confess I have never yet seen any satisfactory 

 explanation of the fact. 



To return to P. . Minor. In winter plumage the head, neck, 

 and the whole body above and below is a delicate pale rose color; 

 on the back little more than white, tinged with rosy ; the scapu- 

 lars are almost white, v/ith a pale rosy streak down the centre ; 

 the quills are black except the tertials which are like the scapu- 

 lars; but slightly pinker; the wing coverts are pale rosy white, 

 all the lesser and median, broadly centred at the tip, with a 

 bright rather pale cerise^ and the legs and feet are a bright rose 

 pink. In the breeding season, the rosy tint is very much bright- 

 er, the throat is 6 ri(//d rose coloi-, each of the feathers of the 

 breast is broadly centred towards the tip with bright cerise. 

 The feathers of the upper portion of the back are man}'- of them 

 similarly centred, and over the broad rosy white scapulars, a num- 

 ber of comparatively narrow^ elongated^ intensely cherry-colored 



