236 



Order XI. ALECTORIDES. 



Following Sclater's arrangement of the families of "Wading Birds, 

 I have adopted his Order AUctorides. Mr. Lydekker, however, in 

 his ' Catalogue of Fossil Birds ' (p. 160), reduces this order to the 

 rank of a Suborder. He further says : — " The Schizognathous birds 

 included in this suborder differ so markedly in their osteology 

 that it is almost impossible to give characters to all the members. 

 The angle of the mandible is, however, always truncated, and the 

 humerus never has an ectepicondylar process." All the birds of 

 this order have the hind toe raised above the level of the other 

 toes {Mesites excepted, where the hallux seems to be on the same 

 level as the other digits). 



Family I. ARAMIDiE. 



Palate schizognathous. 



Nasals schizorhinal. 



Eectrices 12. 



Caeca 2 and 2| inches long, somewhat dilated towards their 

 blind end. 



OU-gland tufted. 



Sternum as in the Cranes, with no posterior notches. 



Femoro-caudal muscle absent. Accessory femoro-caudal thin 

 and small. Semitendinosus and accessory semitendinosus fairly 

 developed. 



Bill longer than the head, curved and Eail-like. Nostrils per- 

 forated, linear, situated in a deep nasal groove which extends for 

 two-thirds of the length of the bill. A very distinct lateral groove 

 running for two-thirds of the length of the mandible. 



Secondaries equal in length to the primaries, the first of which is 

 peculiar, being sickle-shaped, narrowed and incised for the basal 

 two-thirds and spatulate at the tip. 



Four bare tracts on the body extending some way up the neck. 



Nest placed amongst rushes in a marsh. 



Eggs ten or twelve, large as a Turkey's, slightly elliptical, 

 sparsely marked with blotches of pale brown and purple on a 

 diill white ground, the whole egg having a powdered or downy 

 appearance. (Hudson, in Scl. & Hudson, Argent. Orn. ii. p. 160.) 



[Most of the above characters have been derived from the late 

 Professor Garrod's memoir on the Anatomy of Aramus scolopueeus 

 (P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 275-277). Cf. also Seebohm, Classif. B. p. 39 ; 

 Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist. Birds, p. 127 ; Sharpe, Classif. B. p. 74,] 



