550 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



" Scoj)s fla7nmeolHS iitters*freqnent\y a single quite uu vary iug rounded 

 note. 



•• Murphy's, October 2, 1880. This morning shot Glaucid'mm gnomay 

 which I heard calling, and at first supposed it was the Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo {Cocc;/.zHs americanm). The specimen shot was perched outhe 

 dead limb of a i^iue tree about 50 feet from the ground. Its calls varied 

 but little iu the fifteen or twenty times I heard them. They may be 

 nearly represented thus: ' Coo-coocoo-coo-coo-coo — coic — cow.^ The first 

 six or seven guttural notes were equidistant, and uttered at the rate of 

 about two in a second ; then, after a i^ause of about two seconds, the 

 longer notes followed. It was occasionally answered in similar notes by 

 an unseen bird. 



" Big Trees, July 13, 1881. Strix occidentalis. — Listened to its call 

 about sunset ; the bird in sight. Its call resembles the barking of a 

 dog, the first three or four notes lasting about one second each ; these- 

 succeeded by long, harsh, whining notes." 



OIV TBE CENUS TANTALUS, 1.IIVIV., AND ITili ALLIES. 

 BY ROBERT RIDOlfAV. 



The only species of Tantalus given by Linnaius in the tenth edition 

 of "Systema Naturae" is T. loculator, which may, therefore, be properly 

 regarded as the type of the genus. In the twelfth edition T. ibis also' 

 appears, along with several true Ibisis of the genera Endocimus, Wagl., 

 and Plegadis, Kaup. So far as I am able to ascertain, the T. ibis and 

 other Old World species related to it have never been separated gen- 

 erically from T. loculator ; but a recent careful comparison* has con- 

 vinced me that they all belong to quite a distinct genus from 2\ locu- 

 lator. Xo generic name having, to my knowledge, been yet given 

 specially to the Old World species, I propose for this group the term 

 Pseudotantalus. The main differential characters of the two genera may- 

 be expressed as follows : 



Tantalus. — Adult with the whole head and upper half of neck 

 naked, the skin hard and scurfy ; crown covered by a quadrate, or 

 somewhat shield-shaped, smooth horny plate, and skin of nape trans- 

 versely wrinkled or corrugated. Nostrils subbasal ; tertials longer than 

 primaries, and with comjDact or normal webs. (Type, T. loculator Linn.) 



Pseudotantalus. — Adult with only the fore part of the head naked, 

 the hinder half and entire neck densely feathered ; nostrils strictly 

 basal ; tertials shorter than primaries, and with their webs somewhat 



* Although I have been able to actually examine only T. ibis, the excellent plates- 

 and descriptions of the remaining species which have been consulted leave no doubt 

 that all the Old World Wood Ibises are strictly congeneric. 



