(ARGENTINE FLAMINGO.)
+Phoenicopterus ignipalliatus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 512
(Mendoza, Paraná, Rosario, Buenos Ayres); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._
p. 127; _iid, P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 145 (Buenos Ayres); _Scl. P. Z.
S._ 1872, p. 549 (Rio Negro); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 41, et
1878, p. 400 (Patagonia); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 156 (Buenos
Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 272 (Pampas).
_Description._--Hind toe present. Plumage rosy red; wing-coverts
crimson; wing-feathers black; bill pale yellowish red, apical half
black; feet dark violet-grey: whole length 39·0 inches, wing 15·0,
tarsus 11·0. _Female_ similar, but smaller.
_Hab._ Southern portions of South America.
The Argentine Flamingo inhabits the whole of the Argentine country,
down to the Rio Negro in the south, where I found it very abundant. The
residents told me of a breeding-place there--a shallow salt-lake--which,
however, had been abandoned by the birds before my visit. The nest
there, as in other regions, was a small pillar of mud raised a foot or
eighteen inches above the surface of the water, and with a slight hollow
on the top; and I was assured by people who had watched them on their
nests that the incubating bird invariably sits with the hind part of
the body projecting from the nest, and the long legs dangling down in
the water, and not tucked up under the bird.
On the Rio Negro I found the birds most abundant in winter, which
surprised me, for that there is a movement of Flamingoes to the north in
the autumn I am quite sure, having often seen them passing overhead in a
northerly direction in the migrating-season. I have also found the young
birds, in the grey plumage, at this season in the marshes near to Buenos
Ayres city, hundreds of miles from any known breeding-place. Probably
the birds in the interior of the country, where the cold is far more
intense than on the sea-coast, go north before winter, while those in
the district bordering on the Atlantic have become stationary.
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.