1837.] PKOCEEDIXGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 271 

 REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 



Y. — Ibises, Storks, and Hekons. 



By LEONHAKD STEJINEOER. I I '^ 



(Witli oue plate.) 



i 



The present part of the "Eeview" embraces the order Herodii^ of 

 which 21 species have been recorded with certainty as occurring in 

 Japan. 



Many of these birds are shy and of skulking habits, difiQcult to collect 

 and very bulky, so as to joake it quite a task to bring large series to- 

 gether; other species are superficially so alike on account of the uniform 

 white color as to require a close study of their structural differences in 

 order to enable one to properly distinguish them ; others again are so 

 changeable in the coloration of their plumage and so variable in size 

 that the museum naturalist has to appeal to his colleague in the field in 

 order to have him solve some of the questions by observations in the 

 haunts of the living birds. 



These circumstances explain why our knowlege of these birds is still 

 60 defective, and, at the same time, are my excuse for the fragmentary 

 form of the following review and for its great bulk. 



To Mr. P. L. Jouy, who has recently returned from Korea and Japan 

 with magnificent collections, I am under great obligations for being 

 allowed to examine his material, a courtesy for which I herewith tender 

 him my sincere thanks. I am also indebted to Mr. J. A. Allen for loan 

 of specimens in the ZsTew York American Museum of Xatural History ; 

 to Mr. Harry Y. Hensou, for the privilege of inspecting his magnificent 

 collection of Hakodate birds ; and to Professor E. Collett, Christiania 

 University, Norway, for submitting for my examination two most in- 

 teresting collections made by Mr. Petersen in the neighborhood of 

 i^agasaki. 



Order HERODII. 



The following synopsis of the families and subfamilies of Japanese 

 Herodii only comprises a few of the most obvious external characters, 

 by which the known species may be easily referred to their respective 

 divisions, but the arrangement here adopted is capable of being sup- 

 ported by strong anatomical characters. 



rt'. Sides of the upper mandible with a deep, uarrow groove, exteudiug uuiutorrupt- 

 edly from the nasal fossiie to the extreme tip of the bill, which is truncate and 

 bent downwards. 



I.— IBIDOIDE^E. 



i. Ibidid^. 



&'. Bill nearly cylindrical, tapering gradually towards the tip, and conspicuously 

 arched from the base 1. Ibidix .e 



