250 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY. 



occiput. Tail and tail-coverts normal. (Type, Mycteria americana 



Gmel. nee Linn.*) 



Genus Euxenuea, Eidgway. 



< Ciconia, Beisson, Orn. v. 3G9, u. 3. — Bonap. Coasp. ii, 1855, 104, et AucT. 



< Ardea, Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 623. 

 =^Euxenura,'RiDG\yAY,MS. {Type, Ardea maguari, Gme\.) 



Gen. ch. — Large, Stork-like 

 ^ birds, with long, compressed, 

 elongate - conical bill ; long, 

 densely-feathered necks; short 

 toes and partly feathered heads 

 as in Ciconia^ but differing from 

 that genus in the form of the 

 tail, which is short and deeply 

 forked, with very rigid feathers ; 

 the longer lower coverts similar 

 to ordinary rectricesin form and 

 development, having their up- 

 per surface convex, the shafts 

 stiff, and the webs firm, thus 

 presenting the appearance of a 

 second tail! 



Bill about equal to the tarsus, 

 much compressed, its vertical 

 outline elongate-conical, the ter- 

 minal third of the culmen and 

 gonys slightly convex; gonys 

 shorter than the mandibular 

 rami; nostrils almost linear, 

 overhung by a sharp, projecting, horny edge, situated near the base of 

 the maxilla, and nearer the culmen than the tomium. Middle toe about 

 two-sevenths as long as the tarsus ; outer toe reaching to the subterminal 

 articulation of the middle toe ; the inner toe a little shorter; hallux about 

 half as long as the inner toe : bare portion of tibia about half the length 

 of the tarsus and middle toe combined. Plumage compact above, loose 

 beneath, particularly on the jugulum, where the feathers are longer, and 

 with decomposed webs ; entire lore and a wide suborbital space naked 

 and somewhat papillose ; chin and a wide strip on each side of the throat 

 bare. Tertials extending to or slightly beyond the tips of the primaries ; 

 third or fourth quill longest. 



Tail a little more than one-third the wing, deeply forked (the inter- 

 mediae a little more than half the length of the next to the outer pair, 

 the lateral pair a little shorter than the next), the feathers broad and 



* While giving a correct diagnosis of his genus Mycteria, with M. americana as type, 

 Linnseus (S. N. i. 1766, 233) describes as the latter, in unmistakable terms, the birds 

 afterward named Ardea maguari by Gmelin. The references given by Linnaeus, bow- 

 ever, refer mainly to the true Mycteria ! 



