168 



soft. Wings of moderate length, curved, acute, outer two quills longest. 

 Tail short, of twelve or more feathers. Tongue fleshy, with a median 

 groove, lateral reversed papilla?, laminae, or bristles, and a semicircular thin 

 horny tip; oesophagus narrow, slightly enlarged at the lower part of the 

 neck; stomach a transversely elliptical gizzard, of which the lateral muscles 

 are excessively developed, the epithelium dense, with two concave grinding 

 surfaces; intestine long and wide; cceca long, cylindrical, contracted at the 

 base. Trachea various, generally much enlarged at the bifurcation, without 

 inferior laryngeal muscles, or only with the slips of the lateral muscles pro- 

 longed. Nest generally on the ground; eggs numerous. Young clothed 

 with stiffish down, and able to walk and swim from birth. 



Genus I.— PHCENICOPTERUS, Linn. FLAMINGO. 



Bill more than double the length of the head, straight and higher than 

 broad for half its length, then deflected, and tapering to an obtuse point; 

 upper mandible with its dorsal line at first straight, then convex, and again 

 straight nearly to the end, when it becomes convex at the tip, the ridge 

 broad and concave, on the deflected part expanded into a lanceolate plate, 

 having a shallow groove in the middle, and separated from the edges by a 

 narrow groove, its extremity narrow and thin edged, but obtuse, this part 

 being analogous to the unguis of Ducks; lower mandible narrower than the 

 upper at its base, but much broader in the rest of its extent; its angle rather 

 long, wide, and filled with bare skin; its dorsal line concave, but at the tip 

 convex, the ridge deeply depressed, there being a wide channel in its place, 

 the sides nearly erect and a little convex, with six ridges on each side 

 toward the tip. Both mandibles internally lamellate, the edge of the lower 

 much incurved. Nostrils linear, direct, and sub-basal, operculate. Head 

 small, ovate; neck extremely elongated, and very slender; body slender; 

 legs extremely long; tibia bare for more than half its length, and with the 

 long tarsus anteriorly scutellate; hind toe very small and elevated; anterior 

 toes connected by emarginate webs, scutellate above, tesselate beneath. 

 Claws oblong, obtuse, depressed. Space between the bill and the eye bare; 

 plumage compact; wings long, very broad, pointed; second quill longest; 

 some of the secondaries extremely elongated, so as to extend far beyond the 

 primaries when the wing is closed. Tail very short. Tongue confined by 

 the lower mandible, fleshy, compressed, decurved, with recurved conical 

 papilla?; oesophagus extremely narrow, but at the lower part of the neck 



