380 
round, there will so far be a difference: but it must be remembered 
that a neck feathered throughout might possibly approximate the Ba- 
leniceps to the Storks, but never to the Boatbill. 
I believe that a minute consideration of the external characters of 
the Baleniceps will sufficiently enable us to recognise in this gigantic 
wader a near relative of Scopus; but, no doubt, new and important 
proofs are to be derived from the skeleton when compared with 
that of the last-mentioned bird. I have, however, not the means of 
making such a comparison, never having seen any part of the skeleton 
of the Baleniceps. Even of the skeletons of the Scopus and the 
Cancroma I have only more or less imperfect skulls and some few 
bones at hand. I should, therefore, only wish to mention here, that 
the interorbital septum is entire in the Scopus (as it is in Lepto- 
ptilos and Tantalus), but perforated (as far as I can see, in the muti- 
lated skull now before me) by a large opening in the Cancroma as 
well as in the Herons ; and that the zygomatic arch, formed by the 
malar bones, is longer in the Boatbill than in the Scopus,—so much 
so indeed, that in the shorter skull of the first it is nearly twice as long 
as it is in the longer skull of the Scopus—this bird approaching 
even in this respect to the Storks, while the Heron type prevails in 
the Cancroma even in this point. It would be very interesting to 
know how the Baleniceps is shaped in these respects *. 
And now, to put an end to my cursory remarks, I shall beg only 
to advance, as the final conclusion to which I have been led by my 
examination of the Baleniceps, that this most curious bird should 
be removed from the neighbourhood of the Cancroma, to constitute, 
together with the Scopus, a small, exclusively African subfamily in 
the great circle of the Ardeide of Leach, appoaching nearer to the 
Storks than to the Herons. 
5. DescripTion or A New Species or HornsBILL rRoM WEstT- 
ERN Arrica. By Joun Gouxp, F.R.S., erc. 
Toccus HARTLAUBI, Gould. 
All the upper surface, back, wings, and tail uniform dark brownish- 
black, glossed with green; three outer tail-feathers on each side 
tipped with white, the inner one of the three less so than the others ; 
under surface sooty-black, each feather fringed with grey, giving 
these parts, particularly the abdomen, a mottled appearance ; under 
surface of the shoulder greyish-white ; basal portion of the inner webs 
of the primaries silvery-grey ; bill rather stout and deep at the base, 
with a small sharp keel or ridge near the base of the culmen ; basal 
three-fourths of the bill black, apical fourth obscure blood-red. 
Total length, 14 inches; bill, 23; wing, 6; tail, 62; tarsi, 1. 
At first sight, the specimen from which the above description was 
* My friend Mr. A. Newton, to whom I had communicated my opinion with 
regard to the Baleniceps during his visit to Copenhagen last year, has lately in- 
formed me that the malar bones are enormously large and strong in this bird; the 
same cannot be said of them in Scopus. 
