Birds of America
By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.
VOLUME VI.
GENUS I.--PHOENICOPTERUS, Linn. FLAMINGO.
Bill more than double the length of the head, straight and higher than
broad for half its length, then deflected, and tapering to an obtuse point;
upper mandible with its dorsal line at first straight, then convex, and again
straight nearly to the end, when it becomes convex at the tip, the ridge broad
and concave, on the deflected part expanded into a lanceolate plate, having a
shallow groove in the middle, arid separated from the edges by a narrow groove,
its extremity narrow and thin edged, but obtuse, this part being analogous to
the unguis of Ducks; lower mandible narrower than the upper at its base, but
much broader in the rest of its extent; its angle rather long, wide, and filled
with bare skin; its dorsal line concave, but at the tip convex, the ridge deeply
depressed, there being a wide channel in its place, the sides nearly erect and a
little convex, with six ridges on each side toward the tip. Both mandibles
internally lamellate, the edge of the lower much incurved. Nostrils linear,
direct, and sub-basal, operculate. Head small, ovate; neck extremely elongated,
and very slender; body slender; legs extremely long; tibia bare for more than
half its length, and with the long tarsus anteriorly scutellate; hind toe very
small and elevated; anterior toes connected by emarginate webs, scutellate
above, tesselate beneath. Claws oblong, obtuse, depressed. Space between the
bill and the eye bare; plumage compact; wings long, very broad, pointed; second
quill longest; some of the secondaries extremely elongated, so as to extend far
beyond the primaries when the wing is closed. Tail very short. Tongue confined
by the lower mandible, fleshy, compressed, decurved, with recurved conical
papillae; oesophagus extremely narrow, but at the lower part of the neck
enlarged into a crop; proventriculus elliptical; stomach a very muscular,
transversely elliptical gizzard, exactly resembling that of a Goose or Duck,
with the epithelium dense, and longitudinally sulcate; intestine very long, and
of considerable width; coeca rather long; cloaca globular.