377 
CERVUS SIKA. 
Cervus sika, Temm. & Sieb. Fauna Japonica, Mamm. pl... (fig 
mala). 
Cervus pseudaxis, Eyd. & Soul. Voy. Bonite, Zool. p. 64. pl. 3, 
Buch. Arch. Mus. Par. vi. pp. 416, 489; Wagn. Suppl. Schreber’s 
Saiig. v. p. 364 (?). 
Cervus axis, ec China, Cantor, Ann. N. H. ix. p. 274. 
Cervus taiouanus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxix. p. 90. 
Rusa javanica, J.B. Gray, Ann. N. H. ser. 3. vi. p. 218. 
Mr. Blyth, it may be remarked, is of opinion (J. A. S. B. xxix. 
p- 90) that this Deer “ belongs strictly to the Hlaphine, and not to 
the Avine group,” and states that its skull “has the same large 
round infra-orbital foramina as C. elaphus, and its immediate con- 
geners. 
4. On THE AFFINITIES OF BALZNICEPS. By Proressor J. 
REINHARDT, For. M. Z.S. 
The majority of ornithologists seem to look upon the Baleniceps 
as approaching nearest to Cancroma, and to consider it the African re- 
presentative of this South American type. Now it shall be freely con- 
ceded that it indeed appears more nearly allied to the Boatbill than to 
the Pelicans, to which Mr. Gould was inclined to refer this, perhaps 
the most extraordinary of the numerous highly interesting new forms 
introduced by him in ornithology. The Baleniceps seems, further, 
better placed in the neighbourhood of the Cancroma than between 
the Spoonbills and the Flamingos, as proposed by M. Des Murs,— 
a position admissible, I think, only when the texture of the egg is 
made the ruling principle of classification. But it may be question- 
able whether the large Storks (Leptoptilos) do not make a nearer 
approach to it than the Boatbill; and I do not hesitate to advance, 
that at all events this last-mentioned bird is not its next of kin. 
When several years ago I became first acquainted with the de- 
scription and the admirable figures of the bird in question in the 
‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society of London, I was struck 
with some features in the gigantic new form, recalling to my mind 
another curious bird, and I wondered why it had not been compared 
with this as well as with the Pelicans, Cranes, Herons, and the Boat- 
bill ; but having no opportunity to examine the Baleniceps itself, I 
could not arrive at any settled opinion. 
The Museum at Copenhagen having last year obtained a female 
specimen of this rare bird from the Imperial Museum at Vienna 
through the generous interference of Prof. Steenstrup, I have at 
length been able to substantiate, through immediate comparison, that 
(indeed as I presumed) the equally African Scopus is the nearest 
relation of the Baleniceps. I may be permitted shortly to state my 
reasons for this rapprochement. 
The Cancroma does not, in my opinion, represent a peculiar sub- 
