BIRDS. 163 



There is still a most important group of the Grallse to be noticed, viz. the Erodiones ; 

 these Birds have tender young like the Pelecaninae and the Raptores ; they are widely 

 diversified in non-essentials, but in all essentials they have much in common. The true Herons 

 (Ardea, &c.) come closest to the Rails ; the Ibises to the Tringinse (Tringa, Totanus, Numenius, &c.); 

 whilst the Flamingoes and Spoonbills approach the Geese ; with the Pelecaninse, also, they have 

 marked affinities. The difficulties experienced by all naturalists in the classification of this 

 group seem to me to arise from the hiatuses caused by extinction, so that some Sub-families are 

 represented by a single genus, or even species. I would, for the present, arrange them in the 

 following order : 



"GRALL^E ALTRICES" vel "ERODIONES." 



A. With a long and slender tongue, as a rule ; the exception, being Cancroma. 



Sub-family " ARDEINJE " (PROPER). 

 Examples. Ardea, Sofaurus, Nycticorax, Cancroma? Erodius, Tigrisoma. 



B. With a small, triangular, flat tongue. 



Sub-family 1. " SCOPING." 

 Examples. Scopus, Bal&niceps, 



Sub-family 2. " CICONIIN.E." 

 Examples. Ciconia, Leptoptilus. 



Sub-family " IBIDIN.E." 

 Examples. Ibis, Threskiornis, Platalea. 



C. With a large, solid, fatty tongue, and horny lamellae on the edges of the beak, as in 

 the AnserinoB. 



Sub-family " PHCENICOPTERIN^E." 

 Example. Phwnicopterus. 



Sub-family " 

 The frail, flat-bodied Herons, with their extremely long necks, are like creatures arising, if 



1 If I were writing upon the Skull, Cancroma should have gone into the Family Scopinae ; its 

 Shoulder-girdle and Breast-bone, however, are typically Ardeine ; as far as grouping is concerned, I 

 am more anxious to ascertain structure, than to make a " system." Professor Huxley in his recent 

 " Hunterian Lectures," and in a paper read at the Zoological Society this spring (April llth, 1867, see 

 ' Proc. Z. S./ 1867, pp. 415 472), has shown but little mercy to "that type of doctrine into which 

 we have been cast " by Cuvier and others. 1 hail the appearance of that paper as a proclamation of 

 liberty to all who have been bound by our great, but now somewhat obsolete rulers. 



