Genus— C EREOPSIS. 
Cereopsis Latham, Index Ornith. SuppL, p. Ixvii., 
1801 . . . . . . . . . . , . . . Type C. novcehollandicB. 
Larger Anserine birds with short, cere-bearing bill, long neck, long wings, 
short tail, long stout legs and short toes. 
The bill is very short and deep, longer than the head ; its depth at base 
is two-thirds the length of the chord of the culmen ; from the base to the nail 
the upper mandible is covered with a cere ; the nostrils are large oval apertures 
placed in the anterior portion of the cere-covered section ; the horny nail is 
decidedly separated by a triangular ridge, and projects beyond the lower 
mandible. No lameUas are visible on the edges of the mandibles. 
The under mandible is flat, the mandibular rami obscured for the most 
part by feathering which covers the interramal space, leaving only a broad 
flattened spoon-like nail. 
The wings are long, the second primary longest, but the first little 
shorter and equal to the third but longer than the fourth ; the primaries 
are somewhat scalloped. 
The tail is short, square, composed of fourteen feathers only about 
one-thnd the length of the wing and less than twice the length of the 
metatarsus. 
The legs are long and very stout, covered throughout with reticulate 
scales ; a bare tibia is exposed ; the toes are short, little more than half the 
length of the metatarsus and are fully webbed, but the webs are rather deeply 
incised ; the metatarsus is more than twice the length of the culmen. The 
hind toe is short ; the claws are long. 
This extraordinary Anserine form bears little resemblance to others of 
the Order, and Salvador! in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, 
Vol. XXVII., admitted it as a subfamily Cereopsince, diflerentiated by its 
peculiar cere-bearing bill. 
In the E 7 HU, Vol. XII., pp. 209-237, pis. xxviii.-xxxiv., 1905, appeared 
a welcome contribution to our knowledge of this fine bird by Dr. Shufeldt 
entitled “ On the Comparative Osteology of Cereo'psis novmhollandi(By 
42 
