GRALLATORIiE. 165 



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 their nest 

 of eartli in marshes, placing themselves astride of it to hatcli their eggs, a 

 position to which they are forced to resort by the length of their legs. The 

 species known, 



Ph. ruber (The Red Flamingo), is from three to four feet in height; ash 

 coloured, with brown sti-eaks, during the first year; in the second there is a 

 rosy hue on the wings, and in the tliird it acquires a permanent purple-red 

 on the back, and rose-coloured wings. The quills of the wmg are black, - 

 the beak yellow, with a black tip, and the feet brown. 



This species is found m all parts of the eastern continent below 40". 



We have also an American species, tlie Fh. ruber of Temminck. 



ORDER VI. 

 PALMIPEDES. 



These birds are characterized by their feet, formed for natation, 

 that is to say, placed far back on the body, attached to short and 

 compressed tarsi, and with palmated toes. Their dense and polished 

 plumage saturated with oil, and the thickly set down which is next 

 to their skin, protect them from the water in which they live. They 

 are the only birds whose bill surpasses — which it sometimes does to 

 a considerable extent — the length of their feet, and tliis is so, to ena- 

 ble them to search for their food in the depths below, while they 

 swim on the surface. Their sternum is very long, affording a com- 

 plete guard to the greater part of their viscera, having, on each side, 

 but one emarginalion or oval foramen, filled up with membrane. 



This order admits of a tolerably precise division into four families. 



FAMILY I. 



BRACHYPTER^. 



A part of this family has some external affinities with that of the 

 Gallinulae. Their legs, placed further back than in any other birds, 

 renders walking painful to them, and obliges them, when on land, to 

 stand vertically. In addition to this, as most of them have but feeble 

 powers of flight, and as some of them are wholly deprived of that 



