418 CLASS AVES. 



Oriental Pratincole. Glar. Orientalis, Leach, 

 pi. xiii. f. 1, 2. 



Plumage above, brownish ash-colour ; beneath, white ; 

 broken ring of black round the throat ; tail, shorter 

 than the wings, without any lateral threads. Java. 



Cream-coloured Pratincole y Glar. Lactea, Tern. 

 Col. 392. 



Plumage above and wings, cinereous- white ; under- 

 neath, white ; quills and under wing-coverts, black ; 

 tail-feathers, except the outer, marked with a black 

 spot. Bengal. 



Our last genus shall be that of the 



Flamingos. Phcenicopterus, L. 



One of the most extraordinary and most isolated of 

 all the birds. Their legs, of an excessive length, have 

 the three front toes palmated to the end, and the 

 hind one extremely short. The neck, not less long 

 nor less slender than the legs, and the small head 

 support a bill, whose lower mandibles is an oval, bent 

 longitudinally into a semi-cylindrical canal, while the 

 upper one, oblong and flat, is bent crosswise in its 

 centre to join the other exactly. The membranous 

 foss of the nostrils occupies almost the entire side of 

 the part which is behind the transverse bend, and 

 the nostrils themselves are a longitudinal cleft; of 

 the lower part of the foss. The edges of the two 

 mandibles are furnished with small and very fine 

 transverse laminae, which, joined to the fleshy thick- 



