Order HEROD I ONES*. 



Bill long, stout, straight and pointed in most, but curved in one group. Tarsi and feet 

 long, the hind toe on the same plane with the anterior ones ; middle claw serrated in one family. 

 Toes webbed at the base, in many only between the outer and middle. 



Young heterqphagous, or helpless at birth, and requiring to be fed by the parent. One 

 family (Ardeidse) furnished with patches of down on the breast and groins. 



Fam. PLATALEID.E. 



Bill long, variable in character, in most curved, in some flattened, the tip expanding into a 

 spatule ; nostrils basal. Wings long. Tail short. Legs long ; tibia bare much above the knee. 

 Tarsus reticulate. Toes moderately short, joined at the base by a web. 



Of large size. Sternum with two notches in the posterior edge. Tertials often elongated. 



Genus PLATALEA. 

 Bill long, straight, flattened throughout, the tip spatulate or expanding into the shape of a 

 spoon-handle ; the extremities both decurved, that of the upper mandible projecting considerably 

 over the under ; nostrils situated in a groove covered by a membrane, the openings tubular ; base 

 of bill furnished with a more or less developed pouch. Wings with the 1st quill nearly as long 

 as the 2nd and 3rd, the 2nd the longest. Legs moderately long, the tarsus reticulate in front. 

 Toes considerably webbed at the base ; the outer web much deeper than the inner. 



PLATALEA LEUCORODIA. 



(THE SPOONBILL.) 



Platalea leucorodia, linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 231 (1766) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 276 



(1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 114 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. 



p. 763 (1864); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 478; Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. 



p. 1122 (1873); Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 404 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 628 (1875) ; 



id. Str. Feath. 1879, p. 114 (List B. of Ind.). 

 Platea leucorodia (Linn.), Dresser, B. of Eur. pts. 23, 24 (1873). 



' The heterophagous nature of the young of this order completely remove it from the Grallatores, with which many 

 have associated it, and ally it unquestionably with the Steganopodes, which I place nest to it. 



