PHCENICOPTERUS. 281 



folds as it floats away.'^ They are also common about the Kurrachee 

 harbour, chiefly on the mud flats and in Clifton Bay; usually they are 

 in large parties drawn up in line. When feeding they have their necks 

 and heads bent down in such a position, that the upper mandible rests 

 on the ground ; with it they stir up the limpid ooze in search of animal- 

 culse, minute Crustacea, fish, &c-, on which they live. Like the Cranes 

 the Flamingoes also have sentinels posted to give warning of danger ; 

 their flesh is not considered good, but the Mohannas or fishermen 

 caste on the Indus consider it palatable, the fishy taste being lost on 

 their palates, owing to their principal diet being fish. The ancients 

 considered it choice food, and the Egyptians, at the present day, are 

 partial to the flesh. From the tongue they are said to extract an oil 

 which they use for flavouring certain viands. 



They have been found breeding at Fao in Mesopotamia ; the nest is as 

 curious as the structure of the bird, being a truncated cone, built entire- 

 ly of stiff clayey mud, on which the parent bird sits either astride or 

 with its long legs folded under it ; eggs 2 in number, white, and very 

 chalky. 



PllOenicopterus minor, Geoff. St. Hil. ; P. G. 419; Sehleg. Be. 

 Dier. fig. 279; Ibis. 1869, pi. 15, 8; Hume, Str. F. i. p. 31; ii. 339; 

 Murray, Hdbk., Zool., ^c, Sind, p. 230. — The Lesser Flamingo. 



"In winter plumage the head, neck and the whole body above and 

 below is a delicate pale rose colour; on the back little more than white, 

 tinged with rosy; the scapulars are almost white, with a pale rosy streak 

 down the centre ; the quills are black, except the tertials, which are 

 like the scapulars, but slightly pinker ; the wing-coverts are pale rosy 

 white, 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 brighter, the throat is 

 bright rose colour, 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 many of them similarly centred, and over the broad 

 rosy white scapulars a number of comparatively narrow, elongated, 

 intensely cherry-coloured plumes (which reach as far down as the end 

 of the closed wing) have been thrown out; the whole visible portion 

 of the secondary, lesser and median-coverts have become the most 

 brilliant cherry colour with only narrow white tips ; and the lower tail- 

 coverts, flanks and vent feathers are bright rosy, tinged with cherry 

 colour, with only narrow white tips ; the legs and feet too have become a 

 deep but brilliant red ; as for the bill, the basal portion is a deep vinous 

 red, the tip black, and the intermediate portion bright crimson lake." 



Length. — 33 to 35 inches, wing 12"5 to 13"75, bill from gape 3"5 to 

 3-6, tail 4-5 to 4-75, tarsus 7-5 to 8-b.—{Hume, Str. F. 1. 83-34). 



Hab. — Sind, Persia, Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Eajputana, Guzerat 

 and the Deccan. 



Gray, in his Handlist of Birds in the Br. Mns., gives AV. Africa, 

 Cape of Good Hope and the Coast of the Red Sea as its other habitats. 

 Occurs associated with P. antiquorum. 



36 z 



