CICONIIDiE — THE STORKS. 
77 
Synopsis of the American Genera. 
Sub-family CICONIUSLE. — The Teue Stoeks. 
1. Euxenura. 1 Bill moderately large, its upper and lower outlines straight throughout; 
entire head and neck feathered, except the lores and a bare strip along each side of the 
throat. Tail abbreviated and deeply forked , the feathers very rigid, the lower tail-coverts 
elongated (extending beyond the true tail), and stiffened , so as to resemble true reduces ! 
(type, Ardca maguari, Gmel.). 
2. Mycteria. Bill enormously large, the terminal half recurved. Entire head and neck 
naked, except a longitudinal hairy patch on the occiput. Tail and tail-coverts normal 
(type, Mycteria americana, Gmel. nec Linn. 2 ). 
Sub-family TANTALINzE — The Wood Ibises. 
3. Tantalus. 3 Adult with the whole head and upper half of the neck naked, the skin hard 
and scurfy ; crown covered with a quadrate, or somewhat shield-shaped, smooth horny 
plate, and skin of nape transversely wrinkled, or corrugated. Nostrils sub-basal ; tertials 
longer than primaries, and with their webs compact or normal (type, Tantalus loculator , 
Linn). 
4. Pseudotantalus. Adult with only the fore part of the head naked, the hinder part and 
entire neck densely feathered ; naked skin of fore part of head smooth. Nostrils strictly 
basal ; tertials shorter than primaries, and with their webs somewhat decomposed. Bill, 
legs, and tail very much longer, and basal outline of the bill of different contour (type, 
Tantalus ibis, Linn.). 
The Wood Ibises form a very natural group of about five species, usually included in the single 
genus Tantalus, inhabiting, like their kindred, the Storks, Jabirus, and Adjutants, the warmer 
1 Genus Euxenuiia, Ridgway. 
Ciconia (part), Bmss. Orn.V. 1760, 369, no. 3. — Bonap. Consp. II. 1855, 104, et Auct. 
Ardea (part), Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 623. 
Euxenura, Ridgw. Bull. U. S. Geol. & Geog. Survey Terr. IV. no. 1, Feb. 5, 1878, 250 (type, 
Ardea maguari, Gmel). 
This genus is very decidedly distinct from Dissoura, Cabanis (type, Ardca episcopus, Bodd. ), the only 
resemblance between them, in addition to the usual Cicouine characters, consisting in the similar form of 
the tail. 
2 While giving a correct diagnosis of his genus Mycteria, with M. americana as type, Linmeus (S. N. 
I. 1766, 233) describes as the latter, in unmistakable terms, the birds afterward named Ardca maguari 
by Gmelin. The references given by Linnaeus, however, refer mainly to the true Mycteria ! 
3 Tlie association of the Tantalince with the Storks, as has latterly been done by several authors, seems 
a very proper procedure, even the external structure showing clearly that such are the true affinities of the 
group. The internal structure affords still more conclusive testimony to this effect, as the following 
scheme, adapted from Garrod (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1875, p. 301), may 
show : — 
Ciconiidie (including Tantalus). Ibididje (including Plataleidce) . 
1. Skull holorhinal. 1. 
2. Angle of the mandible truncated. 2. 
3. Pectoralis major muscle in two layers, — a su- 3. 
perficial one, and a deep one, easily separable 
from the other. 
4. Accessory fernoro-caudal muscle absent. 4. 
5. Scmitendinosus muscle tendinous for its distal 5. 
half. 
6. “ No slip leaves the biceps cubiti muscle to join 6. 
the tensor patagii longus .” 
Skull schizorhinal. 
Angle of the mandible produced and recurved. 
Pectoralis major muscle simple, not separable 
into distinct layers. 
Accessory fernoro-caudal muscle well developed. 
Semitendinosus muscle muscular throughout. 
“ A small muscular belly is sent from the biceps 
cubiti to the tendon of the tensor patagii lon- 
gus muscle.” 
Professor Garrod adds to the above tabulation of the diagnostic characters of the Ciconiidce and Ilididcc, 
that “There are many other structural peculiarities, which make it perfectly certain that Tantalus is a 
member of the Ciconiidce, and not an aberrant one, either.” 
