SHUFELDT : THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE STEGANOPODES 115 



"This group answers to the ' Steganopodes ' of Illiger; and since the appear- 

 ance of the admirable memoir of Brandt, ' Zur Osteologie der Vogel,' in 1840, no 

 doubt can have been entertained as to its extremely natural characters. The genera 

 composing it are sharply divided by the structure of the skull, described above, into 

 two groups the one containing the Pelicans, the other the remaining genera" 

 (pp. 461-462). 



Doctor Hans Gadow makes'an Order 9 the Procellariiformes, and an Order 11, 

 the Falconiformes, between which he places his Order 10, the Ardeiformes. 

 These last are thus characterized : 



10. ARDEIFORMES. 



Cosmopolitan Aquatic. 

 Young passing through a downy stage. 

 Oil-gland tufted. Aquito-cubital. 

 Humero-coracoid deep. No ectepicondylar process. 

 Desmognathous. No basipterygoid processes. 



I. STEGANOPODES. 



Cosmopolitan. Aquatic-nidicolous. 



Piscivorous. 



Rhamphotheca compound. Nares impervious. 



No supraorbital glands. Angulare truncated. 



Neck without apteria. 



Legs short ; all the four toes webbed together. (Unique.) 



Hypotarsus complex. Flexors type of II. 



Orthoccelous type II. Tongue rudimentary. 



1. Phaetontidse. 



15 cervical vertebrae. 

 Procoracoid process large. 

 Garrod's symbol AXY + . 



2. Phalacrocoratidte (including Sulinse, Plotinse, Phalacrocoracinse). 



18-20 cervical vertebrae. 

 Garrod's symbol AX + . 



3. Pelecanidse. 



17 cervical vertebrae. 

 Procoracoid process small. 

 Garrod's symbol A + . 



