ANASTOMUS. 377 



Habits, $c. This bird, well known as the Pelican Ibis, a name 

 involving error, is common in well- watered parts of the country, 

 solitary or in flocks, frequenting the larger pieces of water, and 

 with the usual habits of Storks. It breeds on large trees, often 

 about villages, several birds nesting together : it makes a rather 

 small nest of sticks, and lays usually 4, but sometimes as many 

 as 8, white eggs, measuring 2-77 by 1-88. The breeding-season 

 is September and October in Northern India, February in the 

 Deccan. This bird is easily tamed and becomes very sociable. 



Genus ANASTOMUS, Bonnaterre, 1790. 



This genus may be recognized at once by its remarkable bill, in 

 which, when adult, an open space is left between the mandibles. 

 These are in contact for a distance from the gape and again at 

 the tip. The bill is strong and stout and the genys considerably 

 curved ; the anterior half of the upper mandible is furnished with 

 lamellae along the commissure. Face in front of the eyes and 

 around them, with the area below the eyes, and the chin and 

 throat naked in adults, only the lores naked in young birds. 

 Tarsus moderate, about as long as the culmen, reticulate ; toes and 

 claws considerably longer in proportion than in Storks generally. 



The open space between the mandibles is said to be the result 

 of wear *, caused by the shells of the mollusca, on which the 

 bird feeds ; in the nestling, and up to the age of 4 or 5 months, 

 the commissure is straight and the two mandibles in contact 

 throughout. 



Three species are known ; one inhabits Africa, another Mada- 

 gascar, the third India. 



1553. Anastomus oscitans. T7ie Open-bill. 



Ardea oscitans, Bodd. Tabl PL Enl. p. 55 (1783). 



Anastomus oscitans, Blyth, Cat. p. 276 ; Irby, Ibis, 1861, p. 244 ; 

 Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 765; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 173 5 Hume, N. 8f 

 E. p. 630 ; id. S. F. i, pp. 107, 133 ; Ball, S. F. ii, p. 435 ; Blyth, 

 Birds Burm. p. 158; Butler fy Hume, S. F. iv, p. 25 ; Binyham, 

 ibid. p. 211 ; Fairbank, ibid. p. 264 ; Murray, S. F. vii, p. 110 ; 

 Butler, ibid. pp. 188, 189 ; Ball $ Hume, ibid. p. 231 ; Cripps, ibid. 

 p. 310 ; Doiff, ibid. p. 467 ; Hume, Cat. no. 940 ; Leyc/e, Birds 

 Ceyl. p. 1103; Butler, S. F. ix, p. 435; Reid, 8. F. x, p. 77; 

 Davidson, ibid. p. 324 ; Damson, ibid. p. 417 ; Oates, B. B. ii, 

 p. 266 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 389 ; Hume $ Cripps, S. F. xi, 

 p. 338 ; Oates in Humes N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 224 ; Barnes, 

 Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. vi, p. 151 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 306. 



The Shell-Ibis, Jerdon ; Gunyla, Ghonyal, Ghonyhila, H. ; Dokar, H. 

 (Bekar) : Tonte-bhanya, Shamakh-bhanya, Samak-khol, Hammak-kas, 

 Beng. ; Pauna konya, Southern Gonds ; Gain Konya, Tel. ; Natte kuti 

 nareh, Tarn. ; Karunary, Tarn. (Ceylon) ; Gombelle-koka, Cing. ; Kha-ru- 

 tsoke, Burm. (Arrakan). 



* As Legge has pointed out, signs of wear are confined to the lower 

 mandible, the thick rhainphotheca of the upper mandible and the lamellae 

 show no signs of attrition ; moreover the space does not exist near the gape, 

 where the greatest crushing-power can be exerted. 



