172 Prof. Reinhardt's Remarks on the Germs Balseniceps. 



thesCj fifteen are cervical vertebrse in every member of tbe group 

 with the exception of the true Heron {A. ciner-ea), which has six- 

 teen ; and thus it is in the number of the dorsal vertebrse, and 

 consequently of the ribs also, that the difference becomes most 

 manifest. BalcEiiiceps, Scopus, and Leptoptilics have six recipro- 

 cally moveable dorsal vertebrae, and theAVhite Stork five* ; Ardea, 

 on the contrary, has seven, and Cancroma as many as eight. Per- 

 haps the harmony in the number and position of the ribs is still 

 more striking. For in Balceniceps, as well as in Scopus, Leptopti- 

 lus, and Ciconia, there are seven pairs of ribs. Of these, with 

 the exception of Scopus, which has only one so-called false rib 

 on either side, the two anterior pairs are false ribs, which do not 

 touch the sternum. In none of them are found any posterior 

 false ribs ; for even the single or (in the White Stork) the two 

 pairs which are attached to the sacrum and pelvis reach the 

 sternum and are furnished with sternal costse. In Cancroma 

 and Ardea the proportion is essentially different ; for these birds 

 have respectively nine and eight pairs of ribs, of which in Can- 

 o'oma the four, and in the Heron the three, anterior pairs are 

 false ribs ; and although in these birds the posterior pair are 

 attached to the pelvis, yet, according to Mr. Parker, they do not 

 touch the sternum as is the case in the Storks. 



Thus it also appears that in the osteology of Balaniceps 

 there is manifested a preponderant approximation to Scopus and 

 the Storks, rather than to Cana'oma and the Herons. It is not, 

 however, intended to be denied that there are some few points 

 in which a similarity to Cancroma may not likewise be traced. 

 The study of the skeleton of Balceniceps, therefore, confirms 



* Nevertheless the whole number of dorsal vertebrae in the White Stork 

 is not really less than in its allied genera. For in all the other birds named 

 above, Herons as well as Storks, there is one pair of ribs attached to the 

 sacrum and back, but in the White Stork, on the contrary, there are two pairs 

 so attached. The fact is, that in the last-mentioned species two true dorsal 

 vertebrse coalesce with the sacrum, but in all the others only one. This 

 difference which appears between the White Stork and all its allies, in the 

 number of free vertebrae lying between the head and sacrum, is also with- 

 out real significance, since taken absolutely all the Storks here mentioned 

 have fifteen cervical and seven dorsal vertebra; ; Cancroma and the Herons, 

 on the other hand, have fifteen and eight, or sixteen and seven. 



