86 CICOXIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



female's breast may have arisen from confusion of the Pelican with 

 the Flamingo, which ejects a blood-like lic|uicl from its mouth.^ 



Of fossil Steganopodes we have Phaethon from the Pliocene of 

 India ; three species of Pelecanus from the same formation of the 

 Siwalik hills, one from the Miocene of Bavaria, one from that of 

 Allier in France, and one from the Queensland drifts ; while in 

 England that genus is recorded, on the strength of the humerus, 

 radius, and ulna from the Plistocene of Norfolk and from the 

 Isle of Ely. Sida has occurred in the Miocene of Carolina, and of 

 Auvergne and Eonzon in France ; the giant Felagornis akin to 

 Sula and Pelecanus, but perhaps indicating a distinct family has 

 also been found in the Miocene near Bordeaux ; and Argillornis, 

 related to Sula, in the Lower Eocene (London Clay) of England. 

 From the same beds we have the remarkable Odontopteryx toliapica, 

 with coarsely serrated edges to the jaws ; Pludacrocorax has been 

 met with in the North American Pliocene, the same strata of the 

 Siwalik hills, the Miocene of Allier and the Orleannais in France, 

 and the Pampean of Argentina, Actiornis anglicus of Lydekker 

 being a close ally from the Hampshire Eocene; Plot us nanus 

 has been described from the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius and 

 from Central Madagascar, P. 'parvus from Queensland. 



The Sub-Order Aedeae contains the Families Ardeidae and 

 Scopidae, in which the body is often compressed, the head and 

 eyes are large, and the neck is long. Most members of the former 

 have a long, straight, sharp bill with rounded culmen and flat- 

 tened sides, the edges being commonly serrated and the maxilla 

 notched ; it may be comparatively small, as in Zehrilus, but is 

 usually stout, and in Cancroma is extraordinarily l?road and 

 depressed, with prominent keel and somewhat dilatable skin 

 beneath, the form resembling that of an inverted boat. Balaeni- 

 ceps (Fig. 27) has a huge beak, which is not only flattened and 

 swollen, but has a ridge on the culmen terminating in a hook, the 

 maxilla ha\dng an undulating outline above and following the 

 strong upward curve of the mandible below, while its sides are 

 grooved. So peculiar, indeed, is this bird that it might well stand 

 alone in a Sub-family Balaenicipitinae, as opposed to the Ardeinae, 

 if not referred to the Storks, where many writers have placed it. 

 In Scopus the bill is acute, keeled, greatly compressed, and laterally 

 grooved, with a small hook at the tip. The tibia is usually bare 



^ A. D. Bartlett, P.Z.S. 1869, p. 146. 



