140 
PHCENICOPTERUS RUBER. 
tongue, large, fleshy, filling the cavity of the - j 
furnished with twelve or more hooked papillfe on 
side, turning backwards ; the tip, a sharp cartilagiu'll, 
substance. The bird, when in full plumage, is 
of a most deep scarlet, (those of Africa said to 1>® 
deepest,) except the quills, which are black ; from 
base of the thigh to the claws, measures thirty-l’^ 
inches, of which the feathered part takes up no i®* 
than three inches; the bare part above the 
thirteen inches; and from thence to the claws, stxt®‘’jl 
the colour of the bare parts is red, and the toes 
furnished with a web, as in the duck genxis, bn*,; 
deeply indented. The legs are not straight, but slig®’’ 
bent, the shin i-ather projecting. 
“ These birds do not gain their full plumage till „ 
third year. In the first, they are of a gra 3 ’ish whit®^ 
the most part ; the second, of a clearer white, tu'^ 
with red, or rather rose colour ; but the n ings ^ ■ 
il» 
scapulars arc red ; iu the third j’car, a gener.al gl® 
scarlet manifests itself throughout; the bill and 'y 
also keep pace with the gradation of colour i" 
plumage, these parts changing to their colours by deg®^ 
as the bird approaches to an adult state. 
“ Flamingoes prefer a warm climate ; in the ^ 
continent not often met with beyond forty degj^i 
north or south ; every where seen on the AltJj 
coast, and adjacent isles, quite to the Cape of j 
Hope;* and now and then on the coasts of 
Italy, arid those of France lying in the Meditcrni® 
Sea ; being, at times, met with at Marseilles, and 
some w'ay uj) the Rhone ; in some seasons freq* 
Aleppo, j; and parts adjacent; seen also on the 
side of the Caspian Sea; aud from thence, along; 
western coast, as far as the Wolga; though tbiS , 
uncertain times, and chiefly iu considerable flocks, co*® 
0 ) 1 ® 
* In Zee Coow river. — I^hilosophical Transactions^ 
plenty in the Isle of Fryuev. . — Voyage to Mauritius^ p. ,cd^' 
f About V'aleneia, iu the lake Albufere. — Dillos’s Z® 
p. 374. 
j Russel’s Aleppo, p. 69. 
