406 DR K. W. SHUFELDT. 



" As but little is known about the structure of Scopus, its 

 exact systematic position is still a matter of doubt ; the facts 

 that are known (and these are confined to the pterylosis and 

 structure of the skeleton) appear to be on the whole in favour 

 of placing Scojjus among the Ciconiida?, as has been done by 

 Mr Sclater in the most recent edition of the ' List of Animals.' 

 The arrangement of the feather-tracts in Scopics is described in 

 some detail by Nitzsch, who has pointed out that the powder- 

 down patches distinctive of the true Herons are absent from 

 Scopus'^: in this and in other pterylographical characters Scopus 

 comes nearer to the Storks than to the Herons." 



" Our knowledge of the osteology of Scopus is at present 

 entirely due to Professor Parker, who has described its 

 shoulder-girdle in his ' Monograph on the Shoulder-girdle and 

 Sternum.' " 2 



" Some scattered remarks on the osteology of Scopus and the 

 affinities which they indicate are also to be found in a memoir 

 by the same writer on Balceniccps rex? 



"Professor Parker is of the opinion that Scopus is truly 

 ciconiine, and is connected with the true Herons by way of 

 Balceniccps and Cancroma, the latter type being essentially 

 Heron-like, while Balceniccps has ' the Heron characters in 

 preponderance.' 



" In view of these facts it is rather remarkable to find that 

 Dr Hartlaub, in his work on the ' Birds of Madagascar,' 

 definitely includes Scopus as a genus of the family Ardeidse, 

 separating it therefore entirely from the Storks ; nevertheless 

 it appears to me that there is in reality quite as much to be 

 said in favour of the ardeine as of the ciconiine affinities of the 

 bird, from a study, that is to say, of the muscles and viscera. 



" With regard to the latter, the only pubHshed notes (so far 

 as I am aware) are to be found in Mr Forbes's Report on the 

 Tubinares collected by H.M.S. 'Challenger'; in that memoir 

 Mr Forbes has described the partly double condition of the 

 p3ctoral muscle in Sco2ms, to which I have referred below." 

 " Two plates illustrating the osteology of Scopiis are to be found 



^ Pteryloijraphy (English edition). Ed. Sclater, London, 1867, p. 130. 



■■^ Ray 8oc, Publicalions {hondon, 1869), p. 165. 



■■^ Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. iv. p. 347. See also Trans, Zool. Soc.,wo\. v. p. 234. 



