38 Allen, The Generic Names Mycteria and Tantalus. [jan 



In accordance with universal custom, the amended Article 30 

 of the International Code of Nomenclature provides: "A genus 

 proposed with a single original species takes that species as its 

 type." Hence the type of Mycteria, regardless of the generic diag- 

 nosis, is M. americana, based on the Jabiru-guacu of Marcgrave, 

 the Wood Ibis, of which, by virtue of its position on the same page, 

 Tantalus loculator is a synonym. The proper name of the Wood 

 Ibis is therefore Mycteria americana. The Jabiru being thus 

 nameless, so far as Linnaeus is concerned, must bear the generic 

 name Jabiru, provided for it by Hellmayr in 1906 (Abhandl. d. 

 K. Bayer. Akad. der Wiss., II Kl., XXII, Abt. 3, 1906, p. 711), 

 and the specific name mycteria, given it by Lichtenstein (/. c.) in 

 1819 = Jabiru mycteria (Licht.) Hellm. 



Marcgrave's Jabiru brasiliensibus is a large bird, with the bill 

 eleven inches long and the legs two feet long, and entirely white, 

 with the head, and also the neck for eight inches, naked, the skin 

 black for the upper half and white for the lower half. 



His Jabiru-guacu is a smaller bird, the size of a stork, ^\ith the 

 bill seven and a half inches long and the legs about fourteen inches 

 long; there is a bony mitre or crown on the top of the head; the 

 neck is ten inches long, the upper half of which, together with the 

 head, is not covered with feathers but with a scaly gray skin, the 

 scales being whitish. It is also a white bird, with the tail and wing- 

 quills black with a purplish gloss. Linn.neus's Mycteria americana 

 is described as: "Magnitudo Ciconise, alba, remigibus rectrici- 

 busque nigro-purpurascentibus." Evidently this is based on 

 Marcgrave's "caudam habet brevem et nigram," and "Alse albfe. 

 remiges illarum penmc nigra, rubino colore transplendente in 

 nigro," in his description of the Jabiru-guacu. 



The Jabiru-guacu has sometimes^ been identified with the 

 Maguari, Euxenura magnari (Gmel.), which has, however, a 

 feathered and not a naked head and neck, and no horny shield on 

 the head; but in size, and in the coloration of the wings and tail, 

 the birds are similar; but 'tail short' applies better to the former 

 (or Wood Ibis) than to the latter, and the bill is curved (shown in 

 Marcgrave's figure), as in the Wood Ibis, and not straight and 

 stork-like, as in the Maguari. 



iC/. Ridgway, BuU. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey Terr. -(Hayden), IV, 1878, 

 250; Berlepsch, Journ. f. Orn., 1887, 32. 



