444 STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS 



but is also more vacuolated behind, and in a different way from 

 what is found among the few Anseres in which the inter- 

 orbital septum is not solid. The length of the angular 

 process of the mandible, though a duck character, is also 

 found in the Plataleidse. There are so many characteristic 

 duck-like characters wanting in the skull of Phoenicopterus 

 that we cannot place it with that group. 



Of fossil Herodiones a considerable number of genera and 

 species have been described. These range from the Cretaceous 

 to cave deposits, and have been found in Europe, India, 

 Mauritius, and Eodriguez. If Scaniornis, described lately 

 by Dames,' from the Cretaceous of Sweden, be really an 

 ally of the flamingo-like bird Palmlodus, it is important to 

 note that this family goes back further into the past than 

 any other living family, so far as our information allows us 

 to say. Huxley's name of ' Amphimorphse ' for the group, 

 and his remark to the effect that they are so thoroughly 

 intermediate between the storks and ducks, will occur to the 

 mind in this connection. This bird is known by a scapula, 

 coracoid, and humerus. 



The other forms upon which new genera have been founded 

 are not known by even so much as the scanty remains of Scanior- 

 nis. Thus PalcBociconia, Propelargus, Ibidopodia are only known 

 by the tarso-metatarsus (incomplete), while the other genera are 

 founded upon equally fragmentary remains. Tantalus Milne- 

 Edwardsii ^ (nearly perfect tibio-tarsus), from middle Miocene, 

 Prance. Palalodus, however, is known by coracoid, scapula, and 

 some of the ' long bones,' as well as the sternum, ' scarcely to be 

 distinguished from the somewhat larger sternum of Phmnicopterus 

 roseus,' fureula, one or two vertebrae, and metacarpal bones. The 

 bird seems not to have had such long legs as the modern flamingo, 

 but longer toes. Elornis (Eocene and Miocene) was also a 

 flamingo, but intermediate in the length of its legs between 

 Phcenicoptenis and Palmlodus. Agnopterus (Miocene) is reckoned 

 a flamingo by Euebeingee, placed ' incerta sedis ' by Lydbkkee. 



' ' tJber Vogelreste aus dem Saltholmskalk von Limhamn bei Malmo,' Bih. K. 

 Svensk. Ah. Sandl. xvi. 1891. 



^ Shufeldt, ' Fossil Bones of Birds,' &c., P. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1896, 

 p. 507. 



