146 DIGE STAVE. SVS ree 
respect the Pygopodes. These (Colymlidw and Podicipedidx) shew 
unmistakable affinities with what may be called generalized or low 
Gralline forms ; their four or five loops are closed, orthoccelous, and 
alternating. The Pygopodes connect the large assemblage of the 
Waders with the following congregation, of which the Lerodii, 
Steganopodes, Tubinares, and Spheniscidx# are all divergent types. A 
very close connexion exists between the Herodii and the Steganopodes, 
and this is supported by numerous other characters. The Tubinares 
are in more than one respect the most specialized outcome of this 
great collective Order, and reach in the typically mesogyrous 
Procellariine their highest development. 
The Spheniscidx are very specialized. They possess undeniable 
characters in common with the Pygopodes, Steganopodes, and Tubinares ; 
they are on the whole orthoccelous, but the extreme length of their 
gut thrown into numerous straight and oblique, or quite irregular, 
convolutions renders comparison very difficult. 
The Anseres, to which belongs Palamedea as a probably very old 
member, are all orthoccelous and combine peri- and plagioccelous 
characters in their second loop. The five or six principal loops are 
alternating ; the last four are closed and straight. As typically 
orthoccelous, aquatic birds, and as Precoces they agree with the 
Pygopodes, and the root of the stock of the Anseres has to be looked 
for in this direction alone. 
The Pelargi, containing the Hemiglottides (I bis and Platalea), 
Phenicopterus, and the Ciconie, are rather diverging forms, which can 
be characterized as possessing four very long and mostly closed loops 
(with occasional secondary loops intercalated), of which the first three 
have a tendency to coil their apical ends into more or less irregular 
spirals: this leads sometimes to an almost mesogyrous formation. 
The Hemiglottides approach nearest to the Limicolx, although 
their points of resemblance with Numenius may possibly be cases of 
convergence only. Very closely allied to, in fact inseparable from 
the Hemiglottides, and connecting them with Tantalus, and thus with 
the Ciconiz proper, is Phenicopterus ; there is not one single feature 
in the whole of the Digestive System in which this bird differs from 
the Pelargi or resembles the Anseres except in the presence of small 
but functional cca, which are nearly lost in the Pelargi. But 
these ceca stand in direct relation to the food of the Flamingoes, 
which consists of the conferve in the mud of the lagoons. The 
zoophagous Pelargi have lost them, the phytophagous Flamingoes 
have preserved them. 
The Ciconiine proper, represented by Ciconia, and connected with 
the former genera by Zantalus, are essentially telogyrous; their second 
loop is right-handed, and accompanies the duodenum ; this is a rare 
feature, and is of taxonomic value for the diagnosis of the subfamilies 
of the Pelargi. 
