The Flamingo has a curious way of feeding: it immerses the beak, and by means of a rapid continuous movement of the mandibles passes a current of water through the mouth, where the minutest insects and particles of floating matter are arrested by the teeth. The stomach is small, and is usually found to contain a pulpy mass of greenish-coloured stuff, mixed with minute particles of quartz. Yet on so scanty a fare this large bird not only supports itself, but becomes excessively fat. I spent half a winter in Patagonia at a house built on the borders of a small lake, and regularly every night a small flock of Flamingoes came to feed in the water about 200 yards from the back of the house. I used to open the window to listen to them, and the noise made by their beaks was continuous and resembled the sound produced by wringing out a wet cloth. They feed a great deal by day, but much more, I think, by night. Where they are never persecuted they are tame birds, and when a flock is fired into and one bird killed, the other birds, though apparently much astonished, do not fly away. They are silent birds, but not actually dumb, having a low hoarse cry, uttered sometimes at the moment of taking flight; also another cry which I have only heard from a wounded bird, resembling the gobbling of a turkey-cock, only shriller. They are almost invariably seen standing in the water, even when not feeding, and even seem to sleep there; on land they have a very singular appearance, their immense height, in proportion to their bulk, giving them an appearance amongst birds something like that of the giraffe amongst mammals. To the lakes and water-courses in the midst of the grey scenery of Patagonia they seem to give a strange glory, while standing motionless, their tall rose-coloured forms mirrored in the dark water, but chiefly when they rise and pass in a long crimson train or phalanx, flying low over the surface. 333. PHŒNICOPTERUS ANDINUS, Philippi. (ANDEAN FLAMINGO.) +Phœnicopterus andinus+, _Phillipi, Reise d. d. Wüste Atacama_, p. 164, tt. iv., v.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 127; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1886, p. 399; _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 364 (Cordilleras of N.-West). _Description._--Hind toe absent. Plumage rosy white; lower neck and breast carmine; wings scarlet, with the tips of the quills black; bill at the base yellowish stained with red; apical half black; feet yellow: whole length 35·0 inches, wing 16·0, tarsus 9·0. _Female_ similar, but smaller. _Hab._ Andes of Bolivia and Northern Chili. The Andean Flamingo, which is at once distinguishable from _P. ignipalliatus_ by the complete absence of the hind toe, is stated by Dr. Burmeister, on the authority of Herr Schickendantz, to be found on the north-western frontiers of the Argentine Republic, on the lagunes of the eastern valleys between the Cordilleras and the adjacent mountains. Order X. ANSERES. Fam. XXXIX. PALAMEDEIDÆ, or SCREAMERS.