420 STRUCTUEE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



would nowadays associate the gulls with the ducks for a similar 

 reason, though it was, of course, done by the earlier ornitho-' 

 logists. The duck-like bill of the flamingo is not so exclusively 

 anatiform as might be thought ; for a very decided stork, 

 Anastomus, has a bill which has very much the same 

 structure as regards the lamellae (hence, indeed, its specific 

 name — lamelligerus) . 



The typical stork$ may be distinguished from the typical 

 herons by the following table : — 



The set of differences may be certainly regarded as of 

 family value. But it must always bejemembered that there 

 are tendencies to the heron-like organisation among true 

 storks ; while Scopus, and possibly Balmniceps, are distinctly 

 intermediate. 



Family Scopidse. — There is one genus only, containing but 

 a single species, Scopus umbretta — African and from Mada- 

 gascar. The anatomy of this stork-like heron has been prin- 

 cipally investigated, as regards the ' soft parts,' by myself.^ 



It differs from the true herons by the absence of powder- 

 down patches, in having ten primaries instead of eleven, and 

 in possessing sixteen cervical vertebrm. On the other hand 

 it differs from the storks in having an ardeiform — or at 

 least a ' typical ' — syrinx, and (from the Plataleidse) in the 



' ' A Contribution to the Anatomy of Scopus umbretta,' P. Z. S. 1884, 

 p. 543. 



