Sni'rKI.DT : OSTKOI.OGY OF THE HeRODIONF.S. 22'.I 



ends of the arch are connected in life with the scapuhx; l)y an interval, 

 on either side of ligament, which likewise agrees with what we found 

 in the Wood Ibis. A rudimentary epicoracoid process is found upon 

 either coracoid, and the anterior extremities of these latter bones are 

 laterally compressed, and when the elements of the girdle are articu- 

 lated /// sifi/, they stand but very little above the clavicle upon either 

 side. 



Each S(-a/>u/a is short and thick, being bluntly pointed at the distal 

 end. Scapula also shows a general curvature along its continuity, 

 being somewhat more marked than it is in Tantalus, and, what I 

 should have said above, the lower border of the keel of the sternum is 

 decidedly more convex than it is in that bird. When the several 

 bones are articulated as in life, the long axis of a coracoid is almost 

 parallel with the imaginary line representing the long axis of the body 

 of the sternum. The scapulae articulate, each with its corresponding 

 coracoid at an angle of about 86°, and the long axes of the clavicular 

 heads of the os furcula are about in line with them, on either side ; 

 while the i)lane in which the remaining part of the furcula may be 

 supposed to exist, is parallel to the long axes of the coracoids. Either 

 clavicular head of the furcula is extensively and rather closely applied 

 to the mesial side of the coracoid where it articulates, and about a 

 centimeter beyond this, the limbaat once curve down in the direction 

 of their symphysis. The very thickish hypocleidium bends abruptly 

 forwards — its posterior aspect being entirely applied to the facet occu- 

 pying the carinal angle. 



On the Skeleton in the Ibises. 



( Guara alba, G. ofdii, and Flegadis giiaranna. ) 

 (Skk Plate IV.; 



0/ the axial Skeleton: — Osteologically, these birds are very differ- 

 ent from Tantalus. Viewed from al)ove, the cranium is seen to be 

 rounded and smooth, with the superior margins of the orbits wide 

 apart. These latter borders are not sharp, but rounded off. In the 

 frontal mid region, just posterior to the premaxillaries, it is inclined 

 to be concaved in Plci^^adis, and markedly so in Guara alha. In the 

 former genus, too, there is a median longitudinal furrow, which is 

 absent in the White Ibis. Both are schizorhinal birds, especially in 

 the case of Guara, where the narial apertures are very narrow, elong- 



