870 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — HERODIONES— HERODII. 



nearly 4 feet ; extent 5.50 feet ; wing 18.00-19.50 inches; tail 6.00 ; bill 9.00, 2-00 or more 

 deep at base ; tibite bare ti.OO; tarsus 8.00 ; uiiddle toe and claw 4.75. Weight 10 or 12 pounds. 

 9 smaller than $. Yoimg : Head and neck downy-feathered; plumage dark gray, with 

 blackish wings and tail ; whitening and head becoming bald after 1st moult. S. Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, and across in corresponding latitudes to the Colorado River, where abundant ; 

 N. regularly coastwise to the Carolinas, and up the Mississippi to the Ohio ; casually to Penn- 

 sylvania, New York, Wisconsin, and New England (the alleged New England ease, Bull. Nutt. 

 Club, viii, July, 1883, p. 187, may be erroneous, but see Auk, Oct. 189G, p. 341, for Massa- 

 chusetts; Osprey, Jan. 1897, p. 67, for Ehode Island; Auk, 1893, p. 91, 1897, p. 208, for 

 Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D. C). West Indies, Mexico, Central and South 

 America. Resident in Florida and the Gulf States; abundant; gregarious; frequents the most 

 thickly wooded swamps and bayous, fairly swarming in its breeding-places; Hight performed 

 with alternate flapping and sailing; at times mounts high in air and performs the most beau- 

 tiful evolutions, with motionless wings, like a Turkey-buzzard. Nest a platform of sticks in 

 trees. Eggs 2-3, 2.75 X 1.75, elliptical, rough with flaky substance, dead white with various 

 brownish stains. 



Subfamily CICONIIN/E: True Storks. 



Bill as above described, but end not decurved (straight or »'ecurved). Nostrils nearly lat- 

 eral. Toes short; middle less than half the tarsus; hiteral toes nearly equal. Hind toe not 

 insistent. Claws short, broad, obtuse, flattened like nails. There are 10 genera and 14 spe- 

 cies of this subfamily. The leading Old World forms are Abdimia ahdimn of Africa and 

 Arabia ; the Episcopal Stork, Dissura episcopus of Africa, India, etc. ; the Common White 

 and Black Storks, Ciconia alba and C. nigra, of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; the Open -bill 

 Storks, Anastomus oscitans of Asia and Hiator lamelligrus of Africa; the Indian Jabiru, 

 Xenorhynchus asiaticus ; the Saddle-billed Stork, Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis ; and sev- 

 eral species of Marabous of the genus Leptoptilus, which are Indian and Indo-malayan. The 

 American representatives are Euxeniira maguari of South America, and the following : 

 MYCTE'RIA. (Gr. fivKTrjp, mukter, the snout ; fivKTrjpi^w, vmkterizo, I turn up the nose.) 

 Jabirus. Bill immensely large, recurved. Wlnile head and neck bare, except a hairy patch 

 on occiput. Tail not peculiar. (In Euxenura, bill moderate, straight, head mostly feathered, 

 tail forked, and its under coverts stiffened and lengthened, resembling rectrices.) 

 M. america'na. American Jabiru. Collared Baguari. Adult : Plumage entirely 

 white. Bill, legs, feet, and bare skin of head and neck, black ; neck with a broad bright red 

 collar round the lower portion. Immature (transition plumage) : Rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and tail white ; rest of upper parts, including feathered portion of lower neck, light brownish- 

 gray, irregularly mixed, except on lower neck, with white feathers of the adult livery ; lower 

 parts entirely white. Bill, etc., colored as in adult. Young: Mostly brownish; hind head 

 tufted with bushy blackish feathers. Length about 50.00 ; wing 24.50-26.00 ; tail 9.50 ; 

 culmen 9.75-12.30 ; depth of bill through base about 2.50 ; tarsus 11.25-12.50 ; middle toe 

 4.20-4.50. Tropical America, N. to Texas. 



Suborder HERODII : Heron Series. 



Skull holorhinal ; angle of mandible truncate. Ambiens and accessory femorocaudal 

 absent; femorocaudal, semitendinosus, and its accessory present. Carotids double, sometimes 

 abnormal (p. 204) ; one intestinal coecum ; tufted oil-gland. Plumage with 2-4 pairs of 

 powder-down tracts ; featheretl tracts very narrow. Tarsi normally scutellate ; hallux long 

 and perfectly insistent, with long claw ; inner edge of middle claw distinctly pectinate. Bill 

 variable with the families, normally narrow and wedged, with long nasal fossae ; feathers ex- 

 tending far between the mandibular rami. Tongue moderate. 



