IV SCOPIDAE—CICONIIDAE 95 
Fam, VIL. Scopidae. 
Madagascar and a large part of the Ethiopian Region, is purphsh- 
brown, with black tail-bars, wider towards the tip; the head ex- 
hibits a thick erectile crest, generally carried horizontally ; the bill 
is black and the feet are brownish. It frequents wooded districts 
near water, and is usually found in pairs ; not being very shy, except 
when breeding, and being more active at dusk than in the day- 
time. At night it roosts in trees. The neck is slightly curved in 
flight, but the feet are outstretched, while the gait on the ground 
is deliberate. The note is a harsh quack or weak metallic sound ; 
the food consists of fish, reptiles, frogs, worms, molluscs, and insects 
captured in shallow water, and while feeding the birds have a 
curious habit of skipping round each other with extended wings. 
The nest is an enormous structure of sticks, lined with roots, grass, 
rushes, or clay, having a hole at the side, and ordinarily a flat top ; 
it is placed in a tree, on a rocky ledge, or exceptionally on the 
ground. Three to five white eggs form the complement. Native 
imagination associates this species with witchcraft. 
Besides the extinct brevipennate Nycticorax megacephalus ot 
Rodriguez, known to the first colonists, and the fossil Butorides 
mauritianus of the Mare aux Songes, this Sub-Order furnishes Pro- 
herodius owent from the London Clay (Lower Eocene); Ardea from 
the Miocene of France and Germany, and the Pliocene of Oregon. 
Fam. VIII. Ciconiidae.—Of the Sub-Order CICONIAE, the first 
Family is that of the Storks, which have long necks and also long 
stout beaks, usually straight and fairly cylindrical, but occasionally 
compressed, as in Leptoptilus, wpturned towards the tip, as in Wye- 
teria, or decurved, asin Vantalus ; in Anastomus there is a wide gap 
between the grooved mandibles, the edges of the maxilla possessing 
fine horny lamellae. Very remarkable, moreover,are the unprotected 
pervious nostrils, which are mere perforations in the bony sheath. 
The tibia is partly bare, while the elongated metatarsus is covered 
with hexagonal scales, becoming more reticulated behind in Leptop- 
tilus and Mycteria ; the partially webbed front toes and flattened 
claws are in most cases very short—though lengthened and more 
slender in Zantalus—and rest upon horny pads,’ the hallux being 
slightly elevated. The wings are ample and fairly long, with eleven 
stout primaries in Ciconia and twelve elsewhere, and from fourteen 
to twenty-five secondaries, the inner of which are often greatly 
Scopus umbretta, the Hammer-head, of 
1 Ridgway, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. iv. Art. ix. 1878, pp. 249-251. 
