O D ONTO GL OSSJi. PITCENICOPTERIDiE.
P hcenicopterus roseus, Pallas.*
THE FLAMINGO.
P h(enicopterus, Brisson 1'. —Bill longer than the head, abruptly bent in the
middle, edges of both mandibles furnished with fine transverse lamelhe ; nostrils
linear, sub-basal. Neck very long and slender. Wings moderately long, the
first quill-feather slightly the longest ; the inner secondaries longer than, and
folding over, the closed primaries. Tail short, even. Legs very long and
slender ; the chief portion of the tibia bare ; tarsus broadly scutellate ; toes *
* Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, ii. p. 207 (1811).
+ Ornithologie, vi. p. 532 (1760).
short, the three anterior ones palmate, with incised webs, hind toe elevated,
free, and small; claws flattened, obtuse.
T h e F lamingo is an inhabitant of Southern Europe, hut
there can be no doubt that it occasionally straggles to the
northern portions of that continent. Naumann states that
one was shot at Alzey in Hesse Darmstadt; and during
the hot summer of 1811, six birds in the plumage of
the second year were shot on the Rhine out of a flock of
twenty-seven ; a number of others being observed passing
over Bamberg on the 25th of June, and a few being seen in
various places in July of the same year. A. von Homeyer
has recorded the capture of an adult in Pomerania in September
1869. In France the Flamingo frequents the great
marshes and salt-lakes near the mouth of the Rhone, where
it certainly deposited its eggs in considerable numbers so
recently as 1869, although perhaps hindered in the work of
reproduction by persecution both then and in subsequent
years ; and stragglers not unfrequently ascend the valley of
the Rhone up to the lakes of Savoy. In Siberia one is known
to have been obtained so far north as the vicinity of Irkutsk,
in 52° N. lat. Considering the above facts, it is not remarkable
that the Flamingo should have occurred on several
occasions in England; nor does it appear to the Editor that
there are sufficient grounds for the assumption, without evidence,
that all the examples observed must necessarily have
been birds which had escaped from confinement. Inasmuch
as there are two American Flamingoes which are also well
known in confinement, and are quite as likely to have
escaped, it is significant that there should be no records of
the occurrence of any but the present species.
A Flamingo was recorded by Mr. A. J. Jackson, in e The
Field ’ of the 16th of August, 1873, as having been shot in
the Isle of Sheppey on the 2nd of that month, having previously
been observed in Essex; but in reply to an inquiry
the Editor has been informed by Mr. Bartlett, of the
London Zoological Gardens, that a bird escaped on the
19th of July, and was perhaps the above. No such sus