PHCEXICOPTEliUS EOSEUS. 
1093 
In a bird of the year (B. Mus.) the plumage is white, the scapulars with dark shafts, and patched near the tips with 
dark brown; the wing-coverts with brown-edged pale centres increasing on the greater series, which have the outer 
" ebs dark for one third of the length, and the inner webs tipped with brown ; primaries and secondaries 
black ; tertials brown near the tips. 
Ohs. A smaller species of Plamingo, P. minor, G. St.-Hil., visits the north-western portions of India in the cold season, 
coming from the west, its summer habitat being Africa. Its dimensions are — wing 12‘5 to 13‘75 inches, tarsus 7-0 to 
S'4. Its plumage is much redder than in P. roseus, and especially in the breeding-season, when the throat is 
bright rose-colour, each of the feathers of the breast broadly centred towards the tip with cerise ; the scapulars 
are rosy while, overlain by a number of long elongated, intensely cherry-coloured plumes ; the secondaries, 
lesser and median wing-coverts brilliant cherry-colour, with narrow white tips ; lower tail-coverts, flanks, and 
vent-feathers bright rosy, tinged with cherry-colour {Hume). 
Distribution . — The Flamingo is frequently seen in large flocks on the east coast of Ceylon, from Jaffna 
southwards to Trincomalie, and from Batticaloa round to Hambantota. It is likewise met with on the west 
coast as far south as Puttalam, at which place large numbers are sometimes seen. I have myself seldom 
seen it in the Trincomalie district; but near Kirinde and Hambantota have met with numbers in March. 
It is for the most part, so far as I could ascertain, a migratory species, appearing in the island in October 
and November, and leaving again in April ; but it is said by the moormen on the south-east coast to breed 
between Yala and Batticaloa ; and if this be the case it must he resident in this part of the island. This is 
a matter, and a very interesting one too, for future investigation ; for as the bird does not nidificate in 
India, its nesting in Ceylon would be a remarkable feature in its economy. 
In India it is abundant in some coast-districts, but towards Calcutta becomes rare. Jerdon writes as 
follows ‘ " It is abundant near Madras, in the Pulicat Lake ; also between Madras and Pondicherry, and south 
towards Tuticoreen ; it is also met with in the Northern Circars, at the great Chilka Lake, south of Cuttack, and 
occasionally near the mouth of the Hooghly and some of the Soonderbun rivers. In Central India and the 
Deccan flocks generally visit some of the larger tanks during the cold weather/’ Messrs. Davidson and 
Wendcn recently state they have but rarely observed it in the Deccan ; and the Eev. Dr. Fairbank remarks 
that it sometimes visits the larger collections of water there and also the saltpans in Bombay. In Sindh 
it is exceedingly numerous, Mr. Hume having met with it on the larger lakes of the Province in tens of 
thousands. “It is,” he says, “a wonderful sight to see one of these enormous flocks rise suddenly when 
alarmed ; as you approach them, as long as they remain in the water at rest, they look simply like a mass of 
faintly rosy snow. A rifle is fired, and then the exposure of the upper and under wing-coverts turns the mass 
into a gigantic brilliantly rosy scarf, waving to and fro in mighty folds as it floats away.” It is very 
common in Guzerat and Kattiawar, but less so in Cuteh and Jodhpoor, except at the Sambhur Lake, where 
it occurs in great flocks in the cold weather, remaining sometimes, when the season is wet, until May. 
Further north it is not uncommon in the Punjab. It is not found to the east of the Bay of Bengal, nor 
in the Mongolian or Chinese region, and it does not appear to range eastward of Turkestan, except as a 
rare straggler. Mr. Dresser states that it has been shot once at Lake Baikal; but this is the only record I 
find of its occurrence in Siberia. It is met with as a straggler, according to SevertzofF, in the western parts 
of Turkestan. Mr. Blauford found it on the Baluchistan coast, and further observes that it is said not to 
be uncommon on the Caspian, on which sea, I gather from other sources, it is principally found near 
the mouth of the Ernba and on the shores of the gulf of Mertvoi-Koultouk. Elsewhere, in Persia, Major 
St. John met with it on the Shiraz plains. In Palestine Canon Tristram found it affecting the Kishon in 
winter, and also met with it in flocks in other parts ; in Asia Minor, however, it is rare, and on the Black 
Sea is less common than on the Caspian. In Greece it is rare, but in Turkey not uncommon, although to 
the north on the Danube it does not seem, according to Mr. Dresser, to have occurred. 
Its principal habitat in Europe appears to be Spain and Portugal, where it breeds, and the island of 
Sardinia, where it occurs in large numbers in the winter, from August till April, sometimes remaining until 
June. An extensive migration takes place from North-western Africa into Spain from February until Mav, 
the birds returning, according to Major Irby, in September ; and this naturalist states that they breed in 
the marismas of the Guadalquivir. They do not all return, however, to Africa, as numbers are seen in 
7 a 2 
