Sclater on the Systema Avium. 
ficial character, and one of which no trace is to be found in the 
osteology. No one will now-a-days deny that the Gulls ( Gavice ) , 
though their feet are webbed, are so intimately allied to the 
Waders ( Limicolcz ) that it is most unnatural to put the two 
groups far apart. Again, to divorce the Flamingoes from the 
Herons simply because of their webbed feet, seems by no means 
satisfactory. Nor is it easy to find any point of resemblance be- 
tween the true Anseres and other Natatores, except the one single 
character of palmatipedism. Under these impressions I have 
thought it better to follow Pro/. Huxley’s plan of associating to- 
gether the three great groups of Grallatores and Natatores that 
resemble the Accipitres in the formation of the palate. It appears 
to me that the great “ Gallino-gralline ” series runs off much 
more smoothly when these excrescences are removed, and that 
at the same time the three Desmognathous groups, even leaving 
the palatal conformation out of consideration, show much affinity 
inter se. 
Acting on these ideas I placed the Steganopodes, Herodiones, 
and Anseres in the ‘ Nomenclator ’ immediately after the Accipi- 
tres, putting the Steganopodes first, amongst which the Fregatidie 
show some sort of (at least superficial) resemblance to the birds 
of prey. I divided them into the following five families, which 
may, I think, be readily diagnosed : — - 
1. Fregatidae. 
2. Phaethontidse. 
3. Pelecanidae. 
4. Phalacrocoracidae. 
5. Plotidae. 
9. Herodiones. 
The Herodiones (Pelargomorphae of Huxley) come very nat- 
urally, I think, between the Pelicans and the Ducks. In the 
4 Nomenclator ’ they are divided into four families — Ardeidse, 
Ciconiidse, Plataleidae, and Phoenicopteridse. I have, however, 
lately come to the conclusion that the last-named group should 
not be included in the Herodiones, although, as Nitzsch has told 
us, the pterylosis is completely Stork-like, and occupies a middle 
place between Ciconia and Tantalus. Prof. Huxley says “the 
genus Phcenicopterus is so completely intermixed between the 
Anserine birds on the one side and the Storks and Herons on the 
other, that it can be ranged with neither of these groups, but 
must stand as a division by itself.” In this opinion I am not 
