45 



RED FLAMINGO. 

 PHOENICOPTEROS BUBER. 

 [Plate LXVI.— Fig. 4.] 



Le FlammanU Briss. VI, ]j. 533, jjL 47, jig. 1. — Buff. VIII, j). 475, ]9L 39. PI. Enl. 63. — ^Lath. 



Syn. Ill, p. 299. — Arct. Zool. JVo. 422 ^Catesbt, I, pi. 73, 74 — Peale's Museum^ JVo. 3545, 



bird of the first year; JN^o. 3546, bird of the second year. 



THIS very singular species being occasionally seen on the 

 southern frontiers of the United States, and on the peninsula of 

 East Florida, where it is more common, has a claim to a niche in 

 our Ornithological Museum, altho the author regrets that from per- 

 sonal observation he can add nothing to the particulars of its his- 

 tory, already fully detailed in various European works. From the 

 most respectable of these, the Synopsis of Dr. Latham, he has col- 

 lected such particulars as appear authentic and interesting. 



" This remarkable bird has the neck and legs in a greater dis- 

 proportion than any other bird, the length from the end of the bill 

 to that of the tail is four feet two or three inches, but to the end 

 of the claws measures sometimes more than six feet. The bill is 

 four inches and a quarter long, and of a construction different from 

 that of any other bird; the upper mandible very thin and flat, and 

 somewhat moveable; the under thick, both of them bending down- 

 wards from the middle; the nostrils are linear, and placed in a 

 blackish membrane; the end of the bill as far as the bend is black, 

 from thence to the base reddish yellow, round the base quite to the 

 eye covered with a flesh colored cere ; the neck is slender, and of 

 a great length; the tongue large, fleshy, filling the cavity of the ^ 

 bill, furnished with twelve or more hooked papillae on each side, 

 turning backwards; the tip a sharp cartilaginous substance. The 



VOL. VIII. M 



