86 CICONIIFORMES CHAP. 
female’s breast may have arisen from confusion of the Pelican with 
the Flamingo, which ejects a blood-like liquid from its mouth.' 
Of fossil Steganopodes we have Phaéthon from the Phocene of 
India; three species of Pelecanus from the same formation of the 
Siwalik hills, one from the Miocene of Bavaria, one from that of 
Allier in France, and one from the Queensland drifts; while in 
England that genus is recorded, on the strength of the humerus, 
radius, and ulna from the Plstocene of Norfolk and from the 
Isle of Ely. Sula has occurred in the Miocene of Carolina, and of 
Auvergne and Ronzon in France; the giant Pelagornis—akin to 
Sula and Pelecanus, but perhaps indicating a distinct family—has 
also been found in the Miocene near Bordeaux; and Argillornis, 
related to Sula, in the Lower Eocene (London Clay) of England. 
From the same beds we have the remarkable Odontopteryx toliapica, 
with coarsely serrated edges to the jaws; Phalacrocorax has been 
met with in the North American Phocene, the same strata of the 
Siwalik hills, the Miocene of Allier and the Orléannais in France, 
and the Pampean of Argentina, Actiornis anglicus of Lydekker 
being a close ally from the Hampshire Eocene; Plotus nanus 
has been described from the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius and 
from Central Madagascar, P. parvus from Queensland. 
The Sub-Order ARDEAE contains the Families Ardeidae and 
Scopidae, in which the body is often compressed, the head and 
eyes are large, and the neck is long. Most members of the former 
have a long, straight, sharp bill with rounded culmen and flat- 
tened sides, the edges being commonly serrated and the maxilla 
notched ; it may be comparatively small, as in Zebri/us, but is 
usually stout, and in Cancroma is extraordinarily broad and 
depressed, with prominent keel and somewhat dilatable skin 
beneath, the form resembling that of an inverted boat.  Balaeni- 
ceps (Fig. 27) has a huge beak, which is not only flattened and 
swollen, but has a ridge on the culmen terminating in a hook, the 
maxilla having an undulating outline above and following the 
strong upward curve of the mandible below, while its sides are 
grooved. So peculiar, indeed, is this bird that it might well stand 
alone-in a Sub-family Balaenicipitinae, as opposed to the Ardeinae, 
if not referred to the Storks, where many writers have placed it. 
In Scopus the bill is acute, keeled, greatly compressed, and laterally 
grooved, with a small hook at the tip. The tibia is usually bare 
1 A. D. Bartlett, P.Z.S. 1869, p. 146. 
