PHOENICOPTERIDAE PALAELODIDAE 



lOS 



secondaries, and elongated straw-yellow plumes on the foie-neck 

 iu the nuptial period ; the naked forehead, ocular region, throat, 

 l)ill, and feet being yellow ; while a black line separates the gorge 

 from the feathered parts in the adult. Ajaja rosea of tropical 

 America, which reaches the South-East United States, is rose- 

 pink, with white neck, back, and breast, pinkish-buff tail, and 

 carmine wing- and tail-coverts ; the bare head is }-ellowish-green, 

 the orbits and throat are orange, the bill is greenish-blue with 

 grey a.nd black base, the feet are crimson, while a curly pink tuft 

 is developed on the fore-neck in the breeding season. 



Tiie female Spoonbill is like the male. The young seem to be 

 duller, with no crest or ornamental plumes ; in some cases the prim- 

 aries are tipped with black, in Ajaja the head is entirely feathered. 



Of fossil forms, Ihidopaia occurs in the Upper Eocene of England, 

 His and IhichipoiUa, the latter of which connects the Ibises with 

 the Storks, in the Miocene of France, Ihis also in that of Bavaria, 

 Protibis in that of Patagonia, Plafulea in the Queensland drifts. 



Fams. X.-XI. The Sub-Order Phoenicopteri, including the 

 Phoenicopteridae or Flamingos and the extinct Palaelodidae, 

 stands midway between the Storks and the Geese, having been on 

 that account termed Aiiphijioephae by Huxley, a term equivalent to 

 the Odontoglossae of Nitzsch. The extraordinary Flamingos have 

 ■\'ery long slender necks and unwieldy-looking bills, high at the base 

 and abruptly bent down in the middle, the maxilla being readily 

 movable and in some cases smaller than the nearly immovable 

 grooved mandible — a condition of affairs seldom found elsewhere, 

 and correlated with the peculiar method of feeding. As in the 

 Anseres, the beak — which is short and straight in the young 

 — is covered with a soft membrane, and ends in a black nail-like 

 process rich in nerves, the margins being furnished in the adult 

 with horny lamellae. The legs are unusually long, with nearly 

 bare tibiae and laterally compressed metatarsi, covered with 

 broad scutes which become smaller posteriorly ; the hallux is 

 absent or somewhat elevated and reduced, while the short anterior 

 toes are fully webbed and have flat stunted claws. The wing is 

 fairly long, with twelve primaries and about twenty-two second- 

 aries ; the tail is even, with fourteen small weak rectrices. The 

 furcula is U-shaped, the nostrils are pervious, the tongue is thick, 

 an aftershaft is present, and the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial. 



Pli oenicopterus ruber, ranging from Florida to Para and the Gala- 



