_P. leucorodia_ has yellow naked areas, black feet and bill, with yellow bars and tip to the latter; _P. minor_ differs in having the neck-feathers produced to a point on the black throat; _P. regia_ has the above parts, except a portion of the orbits, black, and _P. alba_ all of them red. The maxilla is transversely corrugated, at least in summer.[100] _Platibis flavipes_ of Australia is white, with no crest, but with black outer webs to the decomposed inner {105}secondaries, and elongated straw-yellow plumes on the fore-neck in the nuptial period; the naked forehead, ocular region, throat, bill, and feet being yellow; while a black line separates the gorge from the feathered parts in the adult. _Ajaja rosea_ of tropical America, which reaches the South-East United States, is rose-pink, with white neck, back, and breast, pinkish-buff tail, and carmine wing- and tail-coverts; the bare head is yellowish-green, the orbits and throat are orange, the bill is greenish-blue with grey and black base, the feet are crimson, while a curly pink tuft is developed on the fore-neck in the breeding season. The female Spoonbill is like the male. The young seem to be duller, with no crest or ornamental plumes; in some cases the primaries are tipped with black, in _Ajaja_ the head is entirely feathered. Of fossil forms, _Ibidopsis_ occurs in the Upper Eocene of England, _Ibis_ and _Ibidopodia_, the latter of which connects the Ibises with the Storks, in the Miocene of France, _Ibis_ also in that of Bavaria, _Protibis_ in that of Patagonia, _Platalea_ in the Queensland drifts. Fams. X.-XI. The Sub-Order PHOENICOPTERI, including the PHOENICOPTERIDAE or Flamingos and the extinct PALAELODIDAE, stands midway between the Storks and the Geese, having been on that account termed AMPHIMORPHAE by Huxley, a term equivalent to the ODONTOGLOSSAE of Nitzsch. The extraordinary Flamingos have very long slender necks and unwieldy-looking bills, high at the base and abruptly bent down in the middle, the maxilla being highly movable and in some cases smaller than the nearly immovable grooved mandible–a condition of affairs seldom found elsewhere, and correlated with the peculiar method of feeding. As in the Anseres, the beak–which is short and straight in the young–is covered with a soft membrane, and ends in a black nail-like process rich in nerves, the margins being furnished in the adult with horny lamellae. The legs are unusually long, with nearly bare tibiae and laterally compressed metatarsi, covered with broad scutes which become smaller posteriorly; the hallux is absent or somewhat elevated and reduced, while the short anterior toes are fully webbed and have flat stunted claws. The wing is fairly long, with twelve primaries and about twenty-two secondaries; the tail is even, with fourteen small weak rectrices. The furcula is U-shaped, the nostrils are pervious, the tongue is thick, an aftershaft is present, and the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial.