652 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — HERODIONES—PELARGI. 



2.00. 9 similar, smaller; length 30.00 or less; extent 48.00. Young: Head mostly feath- 

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

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

 color, inhabits the South Atlantic and Gulf States, and southward 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 like a heron's ; eggs usually 3, laid in April, nearly 

 eUiptioal, 2.60 X 1-90, white. 



13. Suborder PELAEGI: 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 ; 

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

 normal. Two intestinal' coeca. A tufted oil-gland. Plumage without powder-down ; 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 ungi'ooved, 

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

 tapering, straight or recurved or deourved. 



The Storks belong chieiiy to the Old World, the warm and temperate portions 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 wide interval between the cutting 

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

 Scopus umbretta, type of a family, is often placed among the Herons, but its pterylosis is that 

 of Storks. 



45. Family OIOONIID-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 homy 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 subfamilies, that of the Storks proper, and that of the 



so-called "Wood Ibises.'' Both are 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 CiconimcB. One 

 American genus and species, and one genus with 

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

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

 certained to be Storks, it is unfortunate that the 

 name of "Ibis," tending to promote confusion, 

 should be too firmly attached to them to leave any 

 hope of its being abolished from such connection. 



ITlQ. 



Tenney, 



455. —Wood Ibis, greatly reduced, 

 after Audubon.) 



(From 



