IBIDIDAE 



99 



Eegious is metalliu black with white abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts, downy white head and neck with black crown, reddish 

 bill and feet. D. maguari of South America has the head and 

 neck feathered, naked red lores and sides of the throat, white 

 plumage with black wings and tail, yellowish bill and red feet. 



Ciconia (Ahdimia) aldimii of the Ethiopian Eegion is 

 bronzy-black with white lower surface; the chin, membranous 

 forehead, and tip of the bill being orange -red, the remainder 

 of the bill greenish and the bare cheeks bluish. C. nigra, the 

 Black Stork of British lists, is iridescent black, with white breast 

 and belly, red bill, feet, and orbits; C. alha, the White Stork, a 

 much more common visitor here, is white with black wings and 

 orbits, red bill and feet. The former — reckoning for the irregular 

 distribution characteristic of the Family — may be said to inhabit 

 Europe, Palaearctic Asia, and North Africa, wintering southward 

 to India and Cape Colony ; the latter is more abundant within a 

 like area, and is represented in East Siberia, China, and Japan 

 by C. hoyciaiia with black bill and red orbits. 



The sexes in this group are similar ; but when immature the 

 whiter specjes are often more dusky, and the blacker species brown- 

 ish, while the bill and legs may then be greenish instead of red, as 

 in C. 7iigra, or the head and neck more feathered, as in Tantalus. 



The Fossils referred to this Family are Propdargus of the 

 Upper Eocene of France, Pelargodes, Tantalus, and possibly 

 Leptopt'd us of its Miocene ; Amphipelargus of the Pliocene of 

 Samos ; Palaeociconia of the Plistocene of Brazil ; Palaeopelargus 

 and Xenorhynchus of that of Queensland. 



Fam. IX. The Ibididae, connected with the Storks through 

 Tantalus, may be divided into the Sub-families (1) Ihidinae or 

 Ibises, and (2) Plataleinae or Spoonbills. In the former the long 

 bill is weak, nearly cylindrical, and strongly curved ; in the latter 

 flattened, narrowed in the middle, and dilated into a terminal 

 " spoon,'' which finallj^ turns downwards. The nasal grooves are 

 remarkably elongated, the skull is somewhat square in Thaumatibis 

 and Graptocephalus. The tibia is partly bare, the metatarsus of 

 medium length and often stout, with transverse or hexagonal scales 

 becoming almost reticulated behind, or even in front in Hagedashia 

 and CarpJdhis ; the toes are generally long, with short anterior webs 

 and variable claws, that of the third digit being sometimes serrated. 

 The moderate wings have eleven primaries and from fourteen to 



