1887.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 285 

 III.— Platalea minor (fype; fide Scblegel). 



lY.— Platalea regia. 



. Superfamity ARDOIDE^. 

 Family CICONIID^. 



Subfamily Ciconiin^, Storks. 



CICONIA Briss. 



17G0. — Ciconia Brissox, Oruitli., V, p. 361 (type, Arclea ciconia Lixx.) 



1852. — MelanojjeJargus Reichexbach, Syst. Av., p. xvi (type, A. nigra LiXN.). 



Only one species of Storks has been recorded from Japan. As the 

 Black Stork, however, is. said to occur throughout Eastern Siberia (ex- 

 cept Kamtschatka and the extreme north) and Northern China, it may 

 be well to give the characters bj^ which it is distinguished from the 

 white Japanese species, in order to facilitate the identification if any 

 straggler should visit Japanese territory.* 



<i^. White, except quills, alula, and greater wiug-coverts, which are black with green- 

 ish metallic luster, tertiaries, aud edges of secondaries and inner coverts also 

 with purplish and bronzy reflections ; outer webs of secondaries and inner 

 primaries, except the edge, of a silvery whitish gray, more or less mottled 

 with dusky C. boyciana. 



a^. Brownish-black with metallic reflections, especially on head and neck, except the 

 lower surface from the breast backwards, which is white [C nigra. ^f 



*Cf. von Martens, Preuss. Exped. Ost-As., Zool. Th., I, p. 105(1836). 



1 17b8.—Ardea nigra Lixx., S. N., 10 ed., I, p. 142.— id., S. N., 12 ed., I, p. 235 (1766).— 

 Ciconia nigra Bechsteix, Gemeinn. Naturg., I, p. 420 (1792). — Sciirexck, 

 Reis. Amurl., I, p. 453 (1860). — Radde, Rei.s. Slid. Ost-Sibir., II (p. 345) 

 (1863).— Swixhoe, p. Z. S., 1871, p. 411.— Taczaxowski, Bull. Soc. Zool- 

 France, 1876, p. 257. — Bolau, Journ. f. Oru., 1832, p. 339. 



1793. — Ardea chrysopelargus Lichtexsteix, Cat. Rer. Nat. Rar., p. 29 (reprint). 



1831. — Ciconia fusca Brehm, Handb. Vog. Deutschl., p. 576. 



