Prof. Reiuhardt's Remarks on the Genus Balseniceps. 171 



whether Balaniceps herein agrees with the Herons or (as I con- 

 sider will be most probable) with the Storks. 



The pelvis, from its long narrow form, is said to resemble that 

 of Cancroma more than that of either the Storks or Herons, but 

 also to differ from all these birds in not expanding anteriorly 

 in the form of a plate, so as to cover the upper extremities of 

 the posterior ribs. On the strength of this brief description, 

 it is difficult to say how great or how little harmony it may 

 display with that of Scopus, in its entire formation. But in 

 one, though not veiy important, point it resembles that of the 

 latter more than that of Cancroma, inasmuch as the side-bones 

 {ossa isc/iii) reach further back than the hip-bones {ossa ilii), 

 exactly as in Scopus, while just the reverse is the case in Can- 

 croma. 



Finally, when one turns to the vertebrae and the ribs, there 

 will be found in some of the cervical vertebrae of Balaniceps a 

 canal formed by a small bony bridge on the lower side of these 

 bones upwards towards their anterior extremity, along which the 

 carotid artery runs, — a peculiarity which is also possessed by 

 the Herons and Cancroma, besides some other birds {Pelecanus, 

 Sula), but is wanting in Scopus and the great majority of the 

 Storks. Still in these it is not entirely unknown, since, as Mr. 

 Parker shows, it occurs in Mycteria australis. Thus it is not, 

 even in the order of Waders, an exclusive character of the 

 Herons, and its absence or presence cannot be of very great 

 value, A greater importance might be attached to the number 

 of vertebrae in the different portions of the vertebral column, as 

 well as to ihe number and relative position of the ribs; and 

 herein, as appears from Mr. Parker's own statement, Balaniceps 

 harmonizes both with Scopus and furthermore with the Storks, 

 but differs entirely from Cancroma, which again in this circum- 

 stance approaches the Herons as much as Balaeniceps does the 

 birds just named. 



Indeed, in Balaniceps, as in Scopus and Leptoptilus, there are 

 found twenty-one separate and reciprocally moveable vertebrae 

 between the head and the sacrum ; and in the true Storks the 

 number is even less by one. On the contrary, the Herons and 

 Cancroma have twenty-three vertebrae within that space. Of 



