268 
ANATINiE. PHCENICOPTERUS. 
lower mandible with the angle long and narrow, the crura 
slender, flattened, the edges internally lamellate, the tip a 
flattened unguis. Nostrils elliptical, open, subbasal. Head 
of moderate size ; neck long or of moderate length, slender ; 
body full; legs gen<3rally short, stout, with little of the 
tibia bare ; tarsus scutellate ; toes four, first small ; anterior 
three palmate. Claws moderate, arched, compressed, ob- 
tuse. Plumage very full, dense, 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 papillae, laminae, or bristles, and a 
semicircular thin horny tip ; oesophagus narrow, slightly 
enlarged at the lower part of the neck ; stomach a trans- 
versely elliptical gizzard, of which the lateral muscles are 
excessively developed, the epithelium dense, with two con- 
cave grinding smTaces ; intestine long and wide ; coeca long, 
cylindrical, contracted at the base. Trachea various, gene- 
rally much enlarged at the bifurcation, without inferior 
laryngeal muscles, or only with the slips of the lateral mus- 
cles prolonged. Nest generally on the ground ; eggs nu- 
merous. Young clothed with stiflish down, and able to walk 
and swim from birth. 
GENUS L 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 mid- 
dle, 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 nar- 
rower than the upper at its base, but much broader in the 
