ShUI El.UT : OsTKOLOGV OI' THK Fl.A.MINCOKS. ;}23 



bones as we find them to occur in any ordinary Ibis, than they do 

 with the corresponding parts of the skeleton of any anserine fowl at 

 present known to me. Likewise it is a significant fact that the tarso- 

 nietatarsus of the Flamingo is so very like that bone in such a bird as 

 Tantalus /ociiia/or, and this applies only in a very slightly less degree 

 to the tibio-tarsi of those birds. 



On the Systematic Position of the Flamingoes. 

 From what has been said above in the course of my observations 

 upon the Osteology of Phocnicopterus, the reader no doubt is prepared 

 to hear what I have to say on the taxonomy of these birds. I take 

 the Flamingoes primarily to form an independent group, or suborder, 

 for which the name Odontogloss.i; may be retained. This group cor- 

 responds exactly with Huxley's Amphimorphce, and I believe Huxley 

 was perfectly right when he decided that this was an intermediate 

 group standing between the anserine fowls upon the one hand and the 

 pelargo-ibine assemblage of forms on the other. Among the Anseres 

 the Flamingo comes nearest to certain Geese than it does to the Swans, 

 or some of the Ducks and Mergansers. To what existing genus of Ibis 

 or Stork, however, it is more nearly allied I am not at j^resent quite pre- 

 pared to say, not having examined all the material necessary to come 

 to a decision in the matter. The phccnicopterine stock may be pretty 

 old ; the present writer has described a Flamingo from the Equus 

 beds of Oregon, and that tertiary fossil departed but very slightly from 

 our existing F. ruber. Judging from its skeleton the Flamingo seems 

 to borrow characters t'rom a number of grallatorial forms, as the Spoon- 

 bills (Ajaja), the Ibididce, and from Tantalus. If we take the genus 

 Ardca as an exam])le, however, I fail to find very much heron in the 

 osteology of/', ruber, indeed, hardly any, and I am inclined to believe 

 that it is pretty well removed from that stock among the Herodiones. 



Explanation ok Plates. 



Plate IX. 

 Fis^. I. Skeleton of a Flamingo. [Ph(enicoptents anti'jtiontm.) Coll. U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum, Washington, D. C. , U. S. A. No. 14,407. (Much reckiced. ) 



Plate .\. 

 Fig. 2. Right lateral view of the skull of the F"lamingo. ( P. ruber. ) Natural 

 size from a photograph by the author. No. 18,494. Coll. U. S. National Museum, 

 Washington, D. C, U. S. A. 



