434 



STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



tirely absent ; their former presence is indicated by a narrow 

 ligament on each side (fig. 42, p. 62), which occupies the place 

 that a muscle should, and is attached precisely where the 

 intrinsic muscles are attached in other ArdeidEe. The mem- 

 brana tympaniformis is well formed, the bronchidesmus is 

 incomplete, while the general form of the organ is purely 

 tracheo-bronchial and thoroughly ardeine. This will be 

 apparent from the annexed woodcuts. 



' The nearest relations of Balceniceps,' said Paekee, ' are 

 the South American boatbill (Can- 

 croma cocMearia) and the little 

 South African umbre {Scopus urn- 

 hretta).' The interorbital septum is 

 stork-like in its completeness. The 

 lacrymal, as in Scopus alone among 

 Herodiones, reaches as far down as 

 the quadrate jugal bar, but it is fuse4 

 anteriorly with the walls of the. 

 skull. The nostrils are continued 

 forward by a groove precisely like 

 that of Scopus and Gancroma. In 

 the palatine bones the fusion of the 

 internal laminae to form a median 

 keel behind the interparietal space 

 is precisely like Scopus ; so, too, is 

 the lateral angle of these bones (see p. 422). There is a firm 

 synostosis between the furcula and the carina sterni. 



Cervical vertebrae 7-13 have, as in most other Herodiones 

 (excluding, however, the supposed ally of BalcBniceps, Scopus), 

 a ventral catapophysial canal. 



The family Plataleidse includes not only the spoonbills 

 but the ibises. The name Hemiglottides was applied by 

 NiTZSCH to the group ' on account of the surprising small- 

 ness of their tongues.' 



The pterylosis is exactly as in the storks.^ The rectrices 



• According to Nitzsoh It appeared to me (in Platalea rosea) to be more 

 like that of Tantalus loculator, in that the hinder part of the spinal tract was 

 not bifid, but continuously though sparsely feathered. 



Fig. 205. — Stkinx of Balm- 

 niceps, aeransed to display 

 Pessulus and Membeana 

 Tympanifohmis (afteb Bed- 

 daed). 



