7o Sclater o)i the System a Avium.. 



ficial character, and one of which no trace is to be found in the 

 osteology. No one will now-a-days deny that the Gnlls ( Gavnc) . 

 though their feet are webbed, are so intimately allied to the 

 Waders {Limicolcr^) that it is most unnatural to put the two 

 groups far apart. Again, to divorce the Flamingoes from the 

 Herons simply because of their webbed feet, seems by no means 

 satisfactory. Nor is it easy to find any point of resemblance be- 

 tween the true Anseres and other Xatatores, except the one single 

 character of palmatipedism. Under these impressions I have 

 thought it better to follow Prof. Huxley's plan of associating to- 

 gether the three great groups of Grallatores and Natatores that 

 resemble the Accipitres in the formation of the palate. It appears 

 to me that the great " Gallino-gralline " series runs off much 

 more smoothly when these excrescences are removed, and that 

 at the same time the three Desmognathous groups, even leaving 

 the palatal conformation out of consideration, show much affinity 

 inter se. 



Acting on these ideas I placed the Steganopodes. Herodiones, 

 and Anseres in the ' Nomenclator ' immediately after the Accipi- 

 tres. putting the Steganopodes first, amongst which the Fregatidae 

 show some sort of (at least superficial) resemblance to the birds 

 of prey. I divided them into the following live families, which 

 may. I think, be readily diagnosed: — 



i. Fregatid.i-. 4. Phalacrocoracidse. 



2. Phaethontida\ 5. Plotidae. 



3. Pelecanida-. 



9. Herodiones. 



The Herodiones (Pelargomorphaa of Huxley) come very nat- 

 urally, I think, between the Pelicans and the Ducks. In the 

 'Nomenclator' they are divided into four families — Ardeidae, 

 CiconiidaB, Plataleidae, and Phcenicopteridae. I have, however, 

 latelv come to the conclusion that the last-named group should 

 not be included in the Herodiones, although, as Nitzsch has told 

 us, the pterylosis is completely Stork-like, and occupies a middle 

 place between Ciconia and Tantalus. Prof. Huxley says "the 

 genus Phocrticopterus is so completely intermixed between the 

 Anserine birds on the one side and the Storks and Herons on the 

 other, that it can be ranged with neither of these groups, but 

 must stand as a division by itself." In this opinion I am not 



