160 Prof. Reinhardt's Reynarks on the Genus Balseniceps. 



jaw, which can be distenderl into a complete pouch or bag, 

 hanging down as far as the throat. The bill of Balaniceps, on 

 the contrary, is at the base rather high than broad ; its sides 

 [paratomia) are well arched, but still steep, and not, like those of 

 Cancroma, nearly horizontal. The whole bill, in comparison with 

 that of the last-mentioned bird, must be called compressed rather 

 than flattened. It is clear that nature's aim has been to render 

 it pre-eminently powerful ; and the fact of the skin between the 

 branches of the lower jaw being thickly covered with feathers for 

 at least two-thirds of its extent is enough to show that no real 

 faucial pouch is to be found in the Balaniceps. On continuing the 

 comparison between the bills of the two birds, we find in Can- 

 croma, as in the Herons generally, a little notch in the edge just 

 behind the point, but not a trace of the powerful hook which ter- 

 minates the upper mandible in Balcmiiceps, and which, together 

 with the entire ridge {cuhnen), is sharply separated from the sides 

 by a deep furrow. Just as little is the lower mandible truncated 

 at its point to make I'oom for the terminal hook. Finally, the 

 nasal grooves as well as the nostrils of Cancroma resemble those 

 of the Herons, but differ materially from those of Balaniceps, in 

 which the former are extremely small, and the latter appear as 

 lines or slits just perceptible, and are placed high up near the 

 culmen and close to the base of the bill. 



While differences are thus visible in almost every single part 

 of the bill in Balceniceps and Cancroma, it will be easy on the 

 other hand to point out in that of the genus Scopus (notwith- 

 standing its, at first sight, different aspect) all the characteristics 

 which distinguish the bill of Balceniceps from the bill of Can- 

 croma. Thus in Scopus is found the hook with which the upper 

 mandible of Balaniceps is furnished — somewhat smaller compara- 

 tively, it is true, than that of the latter, but, together with the 

 entire culmen, just as sharply separated from the sides by a deep 

 furrow. Moreover the lower inaudible is truncated towards its 

 point, in the same manner and for the same reason as in Balani- 

 ceps. Finally, the nostrils in Scopus also are narrow slits near 

 the base of the bill. Even the sharp keel formed by the bill of 

 Scopus is already exemplified by the raised ridge which runs 

 along the middle of the flat culmen in Balaniceps ; and if one 



