{106}[Illustration: FIG. 31.–Flamingo. _Phoenicopterus roseus._ × 1/11.] _Phoenicopterus ruber_, ranging from Florida to Pará and the Galápagos, is light vermilion with brighter wing-coverts, the yellowish bill having a black tip and the feet being red; the other forms are rosy-white with the coverts scarlet, while all have black remiges; the naked orbits and lores vary from rose-coloured to yellow, _P. minor_, _P. andinus_, and _P. jamesi_ having feathered chins. _P. roseus_, recorded thrice from Britain and several times from North Germany, while extending from Central Europe, the Canaries, and Cape Verds to the whole of Africa, Lake Baikal, India, and Ceylon, has red feet and a pink bill with black tip; _P. chilensis_, of America south {107}of Central Peru, Uruguay, and perhaps Brazil, has green-grey metatarsi with red joints, the black on the bill reaching above the bend; _P._ (_Phoeniconaias_) _minor_, of the Ethiopian Region, Madagascar, and North-West India, is very like _P. roseus._ _P._ (_Phoenicoparrus_) _andinus_, of the Andes of Bolivia, Chili, and Argentina–the largest species of the Family–and _P. jamesi_, of South Peru and Chili, lack the hallux, and have the base of the bill yellow and the middle red, with yellow and red feet respectively. The young are chiefly greyish- or buffish-white, with brown or black markings, rarely seen beneath, and duller naked parts; the adults are uniformly downy, the nestlings white and woolly. Flamingos are shy birds, sometimes found singly, but usually in immense flocks, which fly gracefully in V-shaped formations with alternate flapping and gliding motion, or circle around with outstretched neck and legs after rising with some difficulty. They spend their time chiefly in wading, the gait being slow and stiff; yet they can swim on occasion, and give evidence of their Anserine affinity by loud harsh cries, much resembling the gaggling of Geese, and by their helpless state in late summer, due to the loss of the flight-feathers. Very curious is their method of feeding, the head being completely inverted and directed backwards, as they tramp about in the shallows and seek for the aquatic herbage, frogs, crustaceans, molluscs, and so forth, which constitute their food, the lamellae of the bill acting as a sifting apparatus. The breeding colonies are situated on some lake, salt lagoon, or "marisma" of little depth, with bare shores, the conical or cylindrical mud nests being slightly hollowed at the top and varying in height from two to fifteen inches according to the amount of water. Several hundred individuals commonly breed together, though they not infrequently change their quarters annually; they are said to fashion the nest with their feet, and lay one or two eggs with bluish shell and chalky incrustation, incubation lasting four weeks or more. Mr. Abel Chapman,[101] Sir Henry Blake,[102] and Mr. Maynard[103] have shewn that the bird sits