SCOPIDAE CICONIIDAE 



Fam. VII. Scopidae. — Scopus umbretta, the Hammer-head, of 

 Madagascar and a large part of the Ethiopian Eegion, is purplish- 

 brown, with black tail-bars, wider towards the tip ; the head ex- 

 hibits a thick erectile crest, generally carried horizontally ; the bill 

 is black and the feet are brownish. It frequents wooded districts 

 near water, and is usually found in pairs ; not being very shy, except 

 when breeding, and being more active at dusk than in the day- 

 time, i^t night it roosts in trees. The neck is slightly curved in 

 flight, but the feet are outstretched, while the gait on the ground 

 is deliberate. The note is a harsh quack or weak metallic sound ; 

 the food consists of fish, reptiles, frogs, wftrms, molluscs, and insects 

 captured in shallow water, and wliile feeding the birds have a 

 curious habit of skipping round each other with extended wings. 

 The nest is an enormous structure of sticks, lined with roots, grass, 

 rushes, or clay, having a hole at the side, and ordinarily a flat top ; 

 it is placed in a tree, on a rocky ledge, or exceptionally on the 

 ground. Three to five white eggs form the complement. Native 

 imagination associates this species with witchcraft. 



Besides the extinct brevipennate Nycticorax megacephaltis of 

 Eodriguez, known to the first colonists, and the fossil Butorides 

 mauritianus of the Mare aux Songes, this Sub-Order furnishes Pro- 

 herodius oweni from the London Clay (Lower Eocene) ; Ardea from 

 the Miocene of France and Germany, and the Pliocene of Oregon. 



Pam. A^III. Ciconiidae. — Of the Sub-Order Ciconiae, the first 

 Family is that of the Storks, which have long necks and also long 

 stout beaks, usually straight and fairly cylindrical, but occasionally 

 compressed, as in Leptoptilus, upturned towards the tip, as in Myc- 

 teria, or decurved, as in Tantalus ; in Anastomus there is a wide gap 

 between the grooved mandibles, the edges of the maxilla possessing 

 fine horny lamellae. Very remarkable, moreover, are the unprotected 

 pervious nostrils, which are mere perforations in the bony sheath. 

 The tibia is partly bare, while the elongated metatarsus is covered 

 with hexagonal scales, becoming more reticulated behind in Leptop- 

 tilus and Mycteria ; the partially webbed front toes and flattened 

 clavv's are in most cases very short — though lengthened and more 

 slender in Tantalus — and rest upon horny pads,^ the hallux being 

 slightly elevated. The wings are ample and fairly long, with eleven 

 stout primaries in Ciconia and twelve elsewhere, and from fourteen 

 to twenty-five secondaries, the inner of which are often greatly 



1 Ridgway, Ball. U. S. Geol. Surv. iv. Art. ix. 1878, pp. 249-251. 



