ANATOMY OF THE SHOE-BILL 689 



Storks. In Herons the anterior margin is slightly pointed, and 

 in Scopus and the Storks, including Tantalus, it is rather more 

 sharply pointed, but the general relations and particularly the 

 relations to the lamina? from the basisphenoid, which I shall now 

 describe, are more like those of Balcenicejys in the case of Storks 

 than of Herons. 



Basisphenoid. — Seen from below this has the usual "T-shaped'' 

 appearance, the ci-oss bar of the " T " being contiguous with the 

 anterior edge of the basitemporal, the main limb forming the 

 rostrum. In Balcenicejis delicate crescentic lamell?e pi'oject back- 

 wards nearly meeting the front edge of the basitemporal plate and 

 with it forming a floor for the Eustachian tubes. The condition 

 of these laminae in Tantalus most closely resembles that of 

 Balcaniceps ; in the other Storks the laminse are less complete, 

 and they are least comjolete in the Herons' and Scopiis. The 

 rostrum from the " T " cross bar to the attachment of the 

 pterygoids is a stout, broad beam of nearly equal width through- 

 out its length in Balceniceps. The other birds in the set I am 

 considering present a series ranging from Balceniceps through 

 Tantalus, the typical Storks, and Scopus, to the Herons which 

 present the end of the series most I'emote from Balceniceps. The 

 rostrum gradually in the series changes from an even beam to 

 a sharply contracting, almost triangular outline, and its smooth 

 ventral curved surface becomes first slightly lidged, and then 

 strongly cariiiate as in Herons. 



Orbital septum. — This is completely ossified in Balceniceps, 

 Scopus, all the Storks, including Tanicchcs ; very incomplete in 

 the Herons, including Cancroma. 



Lacrymcd. — As Parker has described, the laciymal of Bcdcenice^ys 

 is highly peculiar, although no doubt 'the peculiarit}' is partly 

 adaptive in relation to the enormous beak. It is a stout vertical 

 strut forming the anterior wall of the orbit, firmly anchylosed 

 below with the jugal and maxilla., and above with the nasal. On 

 the roof of the skull it forms the external portion of the fronto- 

 maxillaiy hinge which runs as a transverse suture across the 

 forehead, being thus entirely anterior to the hinge. A thin 

 vertical lamina projects from it into the cavity of the orbit, Avhich 

 is pierced by a large lacrymal foramen, external to the nasal 

 cavity. In Scopus the laciymal is a vertical beam scooped out 

 on its orbital face for the lacrymal canal, biit hanging down 

 freely along the front of the orbital cavity, until it almost meets 

 but does not actually touch the jugal. It has no contact with 

 the maxilla and depends from the oi-bital edge of the frontal, 

 behind the fronto-maxillary hinge, and with no more than the 

 minutest overlap to the nasal on the distal aspect of the hinge. 

 In Storks of the genus Tantalus the lacrymal is suspended from 

 the orbital edge of the frontal behind the hinge, with just a 

 trace of overlap across it to the nasal. From this point of 

 suspension the flat external face hangs vertically downwards, 

 gradually narrowing, and free fiom the maxilla and not reaching 



