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Show 1884.] ON THE ANATOMY OF SCOPUS UMBRETTA. 543 3. A Contribution to the Anatomy of Scopus umbretta. By F. E. BEDDARD, M.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. [Received November 5, 1884.] The dissection of two specimens of Scopus umbretta has enabled me to bring a few notes upon it3 anatomy before the Society. One of these individuals lived in the Society's Gardens from 1880 to 1884, the other was sent to the late Mr. W . A. Forbes from Africa. Both were partially dissected by Mr. Forbes; and in preparing the following account 1 have had the advantage of consulting a few M S . notes left by him. As but little is known about the structure of Scopus, its exact systematic position is still a matter of doubt; the facts that are known (and these are confined to the pterylosis and structure of the skeleton) appear to be on the whole in favour of placing Scopus among the Ciconiidae, as has been done by Mr. Sclater in the most recent edition of the ' List of Animals.' The arrangement of the feather-tracts in Scopus is described in some detail by Nitzsch, who has pointed out that the powder-down patches distinctive of the true Herons are absent from Scopusx: in this and in other pterylographical characters Scopus comes nearer to the Storks than to the Herons. Our knowledge of the osteology of Scopus is at present entirely due to Prof. Parker, who has described its shoulder-girdle in his 'Monograph on the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum2. Some scattered remarks on the osteology of Scopus and the affinities which they indicate are also to be found in a memoir by the same writer on Bala-niceps rex 3. Prof. Parker is of opinion that Scopus is truly Cico-niine, and is connected with the true Herons by way of Balaniceps and Cancroma, the latter type being essentially Heron-like, while Balaniceps has "the Heron characters in preponderance." It view of these facts, it is rather remarkable to find that Dr. Hartlaub, in his work on the Birds of Madagascar, definitely includes Scopus as a genus of the family Ardeidae, separating it therefore entirely from the Storks; nevertheless it appears to me that there is in reality quite as much to be said in favour of the Ardeine as of the Ciconiine affinities of the bird, from a study, that is to say, of the muscles and viscera. With regard to the latter, the only published notes (so far as I am aware) are to be found in Mr. Forbes's Report on the Tubinares collected by H.M.S. ' Challenger '; in that memoir Mr. Forbes has described the partly double condition of the pectoral muscle in Scopus, which I have referred to below. Two plates illustrating the osteology of Scopus are to be found in the last published part of the magnificent ' Histoire Naturelle 1 Pterylography (English Edition). Ed. Sclater: London, 1867, p. 130. 2 Ray Soc. Publications (London, 1869), p. 165. 3 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iv. p. 347 et passim. See also Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. v. p. 234. |
