652 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — HEEODIONES—PELABGI. 
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 Mdth rosy the second year ; full plumage 
the third. Weight of adults 3 or 4 lbs. 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 
elliptical, 2.60 X 1-90, white. 
13. Suborder PELARGI : 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 ; 
pectoralis 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 ungrooved, 
without nasal fossa, the nostrils bored directly in its substance ; bill very stout, compressed, 
tapering, straight or recurved or decurved. 
The Storks belong chiefly 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 CICONIID^ : Storks. 
Bill longer than head, very stout at base, not grooved, tapering to the straight, recurved or 
decurved tip. Nostrils pierced directly in the horny 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 Ciconiince. 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. 
Fig 
Tenney, 
455 — Wood Ibis, greatly reduced, 
after Audubon. ^ 
(From 
