412 OSTEOLOGY OF SCOPUS UMBRETTA AND BAL^NICEPS REX. 



ordinary part of its structure; for although the scapulae and 

 coracoids are normal, yet the furculum and the sternum have 

 undergone very unlooked-for changes. The furculum has very 

 much the structure of that of the Totipalmatte, and its angle 

 is still more completely fused with the anterior end of the 

 sternal keel than in birds of that family. In many respects 

 the sternum is intermediate between that of the Heron and 

 the Adjutant ; but its anterior part is modified like that of the 

 Scansores, whilst the posterior part has marked ralline and 

 even ibidine characters. The long toes, moreover, are like 

 those of the Macrodactyli ; but the , leg-bones and the bones of 

 the upper extremities are, save in point of size, exactly the 

 counterpart of those of the common grey Heron." {Trans. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond, vol. iv. pp. 347, 348.) 



In closing this brief account of the osteology of Scojnts and of 

 Balceniceps, I would say that I have written out a very 

 extended description of the skeletology of the American and 

 other forms composing the Suborder Herodiones, which it 

 is my intention to publish later on. In that memoir, however, 

 I present a scheme of classification which includes the two 

 forms we have been considering in the present paper ; so, 

 without discussing the taxonomy of the group as a whole, 

 for that I will do when the Herodiones come to. be published, 

 I present here simply the aforesaid provisional scheme, which 

 is as follows : — 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXIX. 



Riglit lateral view of the skeleton of Scopus um.hretta, Gmel. 



Reduced about one-half. From a photograph of the specimen 

 in the Collections of the U.S. National Museum at Washington 

 (No. 18,898). 



Specimen collected at CUngfl, Africa. 



