LAMELLIROSTRES: AXSERIXE BIRDS. 887 



Order LAMELLIROSTRES: Anserine Birds. 



Bill lamellate: tliat is, both iiiiiudibles fiiruii^lied aluug toinial edges with series of laminar 

 or teeth-like projections, alternating and fitting within each other. Covering of bill membra- 

 nous, wholly or in greatest part. Tongue fleshy, usually with horny tip on under side, and 

 serrate or papillate edges corresponding to denticnlations of bill. Feet palmate; hallux ele- 

 vated, free, simple, or lobed (rarely absent). Wings never exceedingly \oug, rarely very sbort. 

 Tail generally sliort and many-feathered. (Esophagus narrower than in lower flesh-eating 

 orders, usually with a more or less specially formed crop; gizzard strongly muscular; intes- 

 tines and their coeca long ; cloaca capaciinis. Legs near centre of equilibrium ; position of 

 body in walking horizontal or nearly so. Reproduction prsecocial. Sexual habit frequently 

 polygamous. Diet various, commonly rather vegetarian than animal. There are in North 

 America two remarkably diverse types of lamellirostral birds, of more than family value, by 

 some now made the bases of separate orders, as in the A. 0. U. List. Their ordinal recogni- 

 tion may prove advisable, especially in view of the fact that the refractory family Anldmidcc (or 

 Palamedeidce) has marked atiinities with Anserine birds, though it is not lamellirostral, and if 

 it were brought as a suborder into the present connection, the name of the order would cease 

 to be pertinent, and its ascribed characters would have to be much modified accordingly. But 

 the Anhimidce are not North American ; the disputed question of their chenomorphic relation- 

 ship (for which see p. 845) may be waived in the present instance; and the matter at issue 

 may continue to be compromised by recognition for our Lamellirostral Hirds of two series, or 

 suborders, as in the somewhat parallel cases of Columhce, GalUncc, and Paludicolce. 



Suborder ODONTOGLOSSJE : Grallatorial Anseres. 



(Order Odoxtogloss.e of the A. 0. U.) 



Consisting of the .single surviving family of Flamingoes ; Odontogloss/v of Nitzsch, Amphi- 

 morph(E of Huxley, Phoenicopteridce of most authors. "The genus Phoenicopterus is so com- 

 pletely intermediate between the Anserine birds on the one side, and the Storks and Herons on 

 the other, that it can be ranged with neither of these groups, but must stand as the type of a 

 division by itself. Thus the skull has the long lacrymo-nasal region, the basipterygoid facets, 

 the prolonged and recurved angle of the mandible, the laminated horny sheath of the Cheno- 

 morpha' \_An(itida']-, but the inaxillo-palatines are spongy, and the general structure of the 

 rostrum is quite similar to that found in Storks and Herons. The lower end of the crus is bare, 

 but the feet are fully webbed ; and the pterylosis is said by Nitzsch to be completely Stork-like " 

 (Huxley). Anserine cranial characters are also found in the constriction of the frontal bone 

 in the orbital region, so that the orbits are not much roofed over: and in the jiresence of fossjH 

 for the supraorbital glands; basipterygoids appear, however small; and the C(Uistructi<in of the 

 shoulder-girdle is rather anserine than otherwise. The plumage is aftersbafted, and has a 

 ventral apterium. Cervical vertebra? 18 or 19, of which 2 arc ct'rvico-d«>rsal ; palate desmog- 

 nathous ; carotids present, but the right much larger tlfan the left, which joins it low down in 

 the neck (uniipie in detail, but similar to the disposition found In Bitterns and certain Parrots; 

 fig. 94); fcmorocaudal absent; ambien.s, accessory femorocaudal, semiteudinosus and accessory 

 Bemitendiuosus present (formula BXY, difl'ering from that nf Ilerodionest and of AtmiUhe). 

 Tongue thick, fleshy, papillate, with terminal nail, and closely tied down ; resophagus ex- 

 tremely narrow, with special crop ; gizzard very muscular; intestines ample, both in length 

 and calibre; 2 long coeca, cimstricteil .it base; a capaci<ius cloaca. Bill of unique shape, but 

 perfectly lamellate. General coiifiguratiou of body and members grallatorial; legs and very 

 slender ne(di exceedingly long, exhibiting even an exaggeration of the proportiiuis of Cranes, 

 Storks, and Hermis; but toes webbed. Tin- palniation is like that of the Avocet, and mainly 



