1094 PHCENICOPTEKUS ROSEUS. 



the winter in many places, among which may be mentioned the island of Iviza and Formcntera. It is also 

 found in winter in the Balearic Islands. In Malta it is only observed at irregular intervals, and in Italy it 

 is not so common as in Sardinia. It is tolerably common in the south of France, and is said, writes 

 Mr. Dresser, to inhabit the marshes of the Camarguc and Aigue-Mortes. It is rare in the north of the country, 

 and does not range as far as Holland or Belgium, although it is a straggler to Germany and has been seen 

 on the Rhine in a considerable flock. It has extended as far east as Pomerania, but docs not appear to be 

 known in Poland or Central Russia. 



In Africa it is abundant, according to Favier, in Morocco, migrating northwards through that country 

 in April and May, and returning from August until December. In Algeria Loche found it at the large 

 lakes ; and Mr. Salvin speaks of vast numbers frequenting the lakes and lagoons near Tunis. In Egypt it is 

 abundant, writes Capt. Shelley, in large brackish lakes, but is rather rare on the Nile itself. Von Heuglin, 

 besides meeting with it in the same districts and at Suez, observed it as far south as the White Nile. It 

 extends down the east coast to Mozambique, and thence into Cape Colony, where it is common, and said to 

 breed at a place called Verlorcn Vley. Up the west coast it is very abundant in Damara Land, extending 

 inland, according to Mr. Andersson, as far as Lake Ngami, and probably breeding to the north of Walvisch 

 Bay, as also on Lake Ngami. It is likewise a visitor to the islands of the Atlantic, for Dr. Bolle records it 

 from Canaria, and Dr. Dohrn and Captain Dampier testify to its occurrence in the Cape-Verd Islands. 



Habits. — This remarkable bird passes its time wading in salt lakes and brackish lagoons, rarely ever 

 being seen out of water, at the bottom of which it scoops up its food with the bill inverted, a position 

 which this organ takes owing to the bird's neck assuming a perpendicular position when feeding, and the culmen 

 being at the same time so much curved at the tip. The flattened upper mandible when thus inverted is 

 exactly suited for either a scooping movement towards the bird's feet or a lateral motion, by means of which 

 I suspect it takes in its food to some extent. It feeds on vegetable matter, animalcule, and very small 

 insects, worms, and ci - ustaceaus, rejecting the refuse through the lamellae in the same manner as Geese and 

 Ducks. It is extremely wary as a rule, though we read that when it first arrives in India it can be more 

 easily approached. Owing to the open ground generally surrounding shallow brackish lagoons, and the fact 

 of the bird usually wading at some distance from the shore, it is impossible to get near it once it becomes 

 wary. In the south-east of Ceylon it is able to wade in the centre of the large leways when they are not 

 very full, and it is then not possible to get a shot at it. The Flamingo is highly gregarious, associating in 

 vast flocks, and when put up on the wing flies in a long line, portions of which, during the course of the 

 birds, advance or fall behind, reminding the beholder, as Mr. Hume aptly writes, of a gigantic scarf. On the 

 wing the neck is stretched to the front and the legs carried straight out behind ; it rises from the ground with 

 difficulty, striking the water with its wings before acquiring sufficient momentum to get fairly on the wing, 

 after which it progresses with a steady flight. When a large flock are disturbed they rise with loud cries; 

 the note, as I have heard it in the captive bird, is a hoarse cackle of two notes, in tone like that of a Goose. 

 The Flamingo swims well ; but Mr. Hume remarks that it carries its neck nearly straight and bent forward, not 

 curved like that of a Swan, and at every stroke the leverage of its long legs naturally causes the head to jerk. 



Nidification. — That the Flamingo nests in Ceylon is, I think, probable, although the locality is a very 

 abnormal one. I have been informed that young birds have been brought to Hambantota from the direction 

 of Eatticaloa, and its peculiar mode of nesting was likewise described to me with tolerable correctness. It 

 has not been discovered breeding anywhere in India ; for, as we have seen, it leaves the country about May, 

 and probably migrates into Persia and Arabia, if not to Northern Africa, to nest. Ornithologists of the 

 present era have been singularly unfortunate in not discovering its breeding-haunts and obtaining perfectly 

 reliable information concerning its nidification. Accounts received, however, from various parts of the world 

 from the inhabitants of the districts in which it rears its young all point to the fact of its making a conical 

 nest of mud with a hollow in the top for the reception of the eggs, and that the bird sits upon the latter 

 with her legs dangling down. My friend Mr. Saunders endeavoured to find a breeding-place in Spain, but 

 being unsuccessful he obtained (Ibis, 1871, p. 394) an account of the nesting of the bird from a Spaniard who 



