132 PTERYLOGRAPHY. 



4. Tantalus. From an examination of T. ibis, leucocepJialus, and lacteus (TEMM., PI. Col., 

 352), this genus appears to reproduce the two forms of the naked-necked and feathered-necked 

 Storks, although there is always a dense feathery coat on the neck from the end of the naked 

 face, and this is interrupted by the spinal and inferior spaces only behind the middle. Thus in 

 T. ibis\ found precisely the same arrangement of the feathers as in the Common Stork, especially 

 the long space in the hinder part of the dorsal tract, and the short femoral tracts, confined to the 

 posterior extremity of the thigh. On the contrary, the other two species presented a spinal tract 

 of which the anterior part had quite remarkably widely separated limbs, between which the 

 sparsely feathered, continuous hinder part projected a little. The lateral neck-space was. wanting 

 in all three species, as in the Storks and all the Pelargi. The number of remiges was from 

 thirty-one to thirty-three, and of these in T. lacteus eleven are distinctly inserted on the pinion ; 

 the third is the longest, and, like the first, second, and fourth, has the inner vane remarkably 

 emarginated a little way from its base, and then tapered to a point. The hypopterum in T. leuco- 

 cepJialus is very large, and appears to consist of several rows of feathers. The length of the 

 humerus, a character common to all the Erodii and Pelnrgi, is particularly favorable to its 

 development. With this, also, the remarkable size of the hinder secondaries, which is fonnd 

 both in the Herons and the Storks, may likewise be connected. On the oil-gland, which is un- 

 commonly thick, with a broad and truncated extremity, I detected several orifices in each half, and 

 these in T. ibis were arranged in a circle ; but the exact number of these apertures escaped me. 

 In the tail I always found twelve rectrices. A peculiarity which I have detected in many Water- 

 Birds, and mention here in the first place of T. leucocepJialus and lacteus, is the pneumatic texture 

 of their skin. Air gets under the skin through the axillary cavity from the anterior lateral cells 

 of the trunk, and not only diffuses itself here to a great or less extent, but actually penetrates 

 into small sacs of the skin itself, which occur between the quills of each four contour-feathers, and 

 are filled from the main reservoir of air by an orifice, which is generally rather narrow. In these 

 Tantali I found such sacs in the two strong-plumaged limbs of the anterior part of the dorsal 

 tract, but nowhere else. They are largest in Dysporus and Pelecanus, in speaking of which I 

 shall refer to them in more detail. 



5. ODONTOGLOSS.E. 



Under this name I place the peculiar genus Phanicoptcrus, the European species of which 

 (P. antiquorum) I have carefully examined, as forming a distinct and abundantly well-characterised 

 family. Its pterylosis (Plate IX, figs. 6 and 7) is perfectly Stork-like, and occupies, as it were, a 

 middle place between the two groups distinguished under Ciconia and Tantalus. The neck is 

 clothed with a continuous and very dense plumage, in which the lateral neck-spaces are entirely 

 deficient ; the inferior space first makes its appearance below, whilst the spinal space extends 

 but little beyond the anterior limit of the trunk. The two limbs of the inferior tract are therefore 

 united as far as the shoulder with those of the dorsal tract ; here they separate, and the former 

 (the inferior tract-bands) soon afterwards receive the broad, remarkably densely feathered, and 

 posteriorly rounded axillary tracts. From this point the inferior tract is perfectly Stork-like, but 

 more densely feathered, and especially stronger on the outside, particularly in the region of the 

 outer branch. The two limbs of the anterior part of the dorsal tract are but narrow, and are 



