Order Odontoglosse
LAMELLIROSTRAL GRALLATORES.
FAMILY PHENICOPTERIDE.
FLAMINGOES.
The seven species included in this family are distributed throughout the tropics. Five species are American, of which one reaches our southern border in Florida. Flamingoes are gregarious at all seasons. They are rarely found far from the seacoasts, and their favorite resorts are shallow bays or vast mud flats which are flooded at high water. In feeding, the bill is pressed downward into the mud, its peculiar shape making the point then turn upward. The ridges along its sides, as in the bills of Ducks, serve as strainers through which are forced the sand and mud taken in with the food. 182. Phœnicopterus ruber (Linn.). FLAMINGO. (See Fig. 18.) Ad.-Beautiful rosy vermilion, scapulars and under parts somewhat paler, flanks carmine, primaries and secondaries black; bill yellowish black at the tip. Im.-"Grayish white, the wings varied with grayish and dusky" (Ridgw.). L., 45.00; W., 16-25; Tar., 12.50; B., 5.50.