114 MEMOIES OP THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



from which it may be inferred that Phaethon approaches the Ciconiidse and Fregata 

 the Accipitres. They all possess the ambiens, cseca, a tufted oil-gland, and the four 

 toes included in a web, which is but imperfectly developed in some. Sula and 

 Phalacrocorax, with Plotus, form one family, Phaethon another, Fregata a third, and 

 Pelecanus a fourth." (Coll. Sci. Mem., p. 221.) 



Dr. Sharpe does not concur in this opinion, and in his " A Review of Recent 

 Attempts to Classify Birds" (Budapest, 1891) places this group betwixt the Anseri- 

 formes and the Cathartidiformes, thus : 



Order (XXIII.) Suborders. Families. 



Phaethontes - - - Phaethontidse. 



Sulse Sulidse. 



f Phalacrocoracidee. 

 Pelecanifoemes. { Phalacrocoraces - i ^, . -, 



I Plotidse. 



Pelecani - - - - Pelecanidse. 



Fregati ----- Fregatidse. 



In volume I of his " Hand List" (page 232), recently issued, this arrangement is 

 somewhat changed. There the Pelecaniformes stand between the Ichthyornithi- 

 formes (Order XXII.) and the Cathartidiformes (Order XXIV.). They are then 

 divided into the eight following families, viz.: 1. Phalacrocoracidse. 2. Odonto- 

 pterygidse. 3. Plotidse. 4. Sulidse. 5. Fregatidse. 6. Phaethontidse. 7. Pele- 

 canidee. 8. Pelagornithidse. Of these 2 and 8 are extinct groups (1899). 



Nearly a quarter of a century before Sharpe's work appeared Huxley in his P. 

 S. Z. memoir (1867) had placed the steganopods inihis group Dysporomorphse of the 

 Desmognathse, and had said of them : "The rostrum is long and pointed and more 

 or less curved, and the external nasal apertures are very small.® There are no basi- 

 pterygoid processes. The palate-bones unite for a considerable distance behind the 

 posterior nares, and send down a vertical crest from their junction." 



" The maxillo-palatines are large and spongy. The angle of the mandible is 

 truncated. The sternum is broad, and its truncated posterior edge is either entire 

 or has a shallow excavation on each side of the middle line. 



" The hallux is turned forwards or inwards, and is united by a web with the 

 completely webbed anterior toes. The ratio of the phalanges is as in the preceding 

 genera. 



" The oil-gland is surmounted by a circlet of feathers. 



' They are now known to be entirely absent in some of the genera as Sula and others. — S. 



