OSTKOLOCN' Ol'' rill". 111:K()I)I0NES. 



The Herodiones are fairl)- well re|)rcsented in the avifauna of the 

 United States. For instance, in the family Platalcidcc, we find Ajaja 

 ajaja, or the Roseate Spoonbill, a species now nearly exterminated 

 in this country. Of the family Ilndidce, or the Ibises, we have two 

 genera, each containing two species, namely Giiara alba, Guara rubra, 

 and Plegadis autumnalis and P. guaraiina. The family Ciconiid<z is 

 rei)resented only by the Wood Ibis ( Tantalus loculator), though it has 

 been claimed by some that the Jabiru {Mycferia americana) has been 

 known to occur on this side of the Mexican border. Of the Bitterns 

 and true Herons we have quite a number. The former are represented 

 by two genera, Botaurics and Ardetta and three species, B. lentiginosus, 

 A. <'.v77/> and A. fieoxena ; while the latter are contained in the two 

 genera y^/v/^rt anc! Nycticorax. Of Ardea there are nearly a dozen 

 species, known as Herons and Egrets. Nycticorax contains two Night 

 Herons, namely N. n. nccvius, and N. violaceus. With the material 

 that has been kindly loaned me by the U. S. National Museum, added 

 to what is to be found in my own collection, I have this group, osteo- 

 logically, well-exemplified. My chief regret, however, is that, at the 

 present writing, I have not a complete skeleton of the Spoonbill, and 

 only a sternum and shoulder-girdle of the Jabiru. During the past few 

 years thousands upon thousands of Spoonbills have been slaughtered 

 in Florida for the markets, by the most unprincipled of "feather- 

 hunters ' ' to gratify the demands of a barbarous fashion. The bodies of 

 those birds are allowed to rot in the heronries where they are shot, 

 stacked up in heaps, — yet for two years I have tried to secure even 

 one skeleton for my present purpose, without success. 



Overlooking all the classifications prior to 1867, we find Huxley in 

 his taxonomy of Birds placing the three families, Ardeida;, Ciconiidce 

 and Tantatidce (Ibises and Spoonbills) in his group 3 or the Pelargo- 

 morphce of his third Suborder, or the Desmognath^, while Garrod 

 in 1874 arranged them as follows : 



Order III. CICONIIFORMES. 



