652 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — HEBODIONES— PELARGI 



2.00. 9 similar, smaller; length 30.00 or less; extent '18.00. Young: Head mostly feath- 

 ered, and general color grayish- white ; acquire white with rosy the second year; full plumage 

 the tliird. Weight of adults 3 or 4 lbs. This bird, so singular in form and magnificent in 

 color, inhabits the South Atlantic and Gulf States, and soutliward in Tropical America ; resi- 

 dent in Florida; N. only to the Carolinas. Breeds in communities in trees and bushes of 

 tangled swamps. Nest a platform of sticks hke a heron's ; eggs usually 3, laid in April, nearly 

 elliptical, 2.60 X 1-90, white. 



13. Suborder PELARGI : The Stork Series. 



Skull holorhinal. Angle of mandible truncate. Ambiens muscle and accessory femoro- 

 caudal absent ; femoro-caudal present or absent ; semitendinosus and its accessory present ; 

 pectoralis major double; biceps cubiti and tensor patagii longus disconnected. Carotids double, 

 normal. Two intestinal co9ca. A tufted oil-gland. Plumage without powder-dovim; feath- 

 ered tracts broad. Tarsi normally reticulate. Hallux not fairly insistent. Claws resting upon 

 a horny "shoe." Inner edge of middle claw not pectinate. Side of upper mandible ungrooved, 

 without nasal fossa, the nostrils bored directly in its substance ; bill very stout, compressed, 

 tapering, straight or recurved or decurved. 



The Storks belong chiefly to the Old World, the warui and temperate porti()US of which 

 they inhabit. There are about a dozen species, representing nearly as many genera of authors ; 

 among these Anastomus and Hiator are remarkable for a "svide interval between the cutting 

 edges of the bill, which only come into apposition at the base and tip. The singular African 

 Scopus iimbretta, typo of a family, is often placed among the Herons, but its pterylosis is that 

 of Storks. 



45. Family CICONIID^E : Storks. 



Bill longer than head, very stout at base, not grooved, tapering to the straight, recurved or 

 decurved tip. Nostrils pierced directly in the horny substance, without nasal scale or mem- 

 brane, high up in the bill close to its base. Legs reticulate. Hallux not or not completely 

 insistent. Claws not acute. 



The family falls in two American subfamiUes, that of the Storks proper, and that of the 



so-called "Wood Ibises." Both arc represented 

 in N. America. 



58. Subfamily TANTALIN/E: Wood Ibises. 



Bill long, extremely stout at base, where it is as 

 broad as the face, gradually tapering to the de- 

 curved tip, without nasal groove or membrane, the 

 nostrils directly perforating its substance, high up 

 at base of upper mandible. Toes lengthened, the 

 middle not less than half as long as the tarsus, the 

 outer longer than the inner; hind toe nearly insist- 

 ent ; claws less nail-like than in Ciconiina;. One 

 American genus and species, and one genus with 

 3 or 4 species of Aftica, Southern Asia, and part 

 of the East Indies. As these birds have been as- 

 certained to bo Storks, it is unfortunate that the 

 name of " Ibis," tending to promote confusion, 



„,„ ,rr w 1 r, ■ 41 1 j ,11. sliould bc too fimily attached to them to leave any 



Fro. 455. —Wood Ibis, greatly reduced. (From ^ _ *' v ^ ^<i v j 



Teriney, after Audubon.) hope of its being abolished from such connection. 



