BALD COOT. 561 



its extremities hard and glossy. The frontal plate is broadly 

 oblong, and extends to the top of the head, beyond the eyes. 



The nostrils are linear, four-twelfths of an inch long ; the 

 aperture of the eyes four-twelfths ; that of the ears three- 

 twelfths. The roof of the mouth is narrow, flattened, with 

 two medial series of acute reversed papillae, and two lateral 

 elevated lines. The tongue fleshy, thick, an inch long, con- 

 cave above, its tip narrowed, but rounded. The oesophagus 

 is about nine inches long, rather narrow, with the proventri- 

 culus somewhat bulbiform. The gizzard is very large, with 

 extremely thick muscles, transversely elliptical, oblique, an 

 inch and three-fourths long, two inches and three-fourths in 

 breadth. The epithelium is dense, and forms two large 

 grinding plates. The intestine, which is long and wide, has 

 the duodenal fold very elongated, and is then convoluted in 

 an elliptical form ; its length is five feet, its width seven- 

 twelfths in the duodenal part. The coeca are extremely 

 elongated, being thirteen inches in length, very narrow for 

 about two inches, then from four to five-twelfths in width, 

 but again narrowed toward the end ; the rectum of uniform 

 width, without cloacal dilatation. 



The legs are of moderate length ; the tarsi with twenty- 

 four anterior scutella ; the first toe with fourteen, the second 

 twenty-eight, the third thirty-eight, the fourth thirty-eight. 

 The claws are long, slender, slightly arched, compressed, 

 tapering, flat beneath, acute. 



The bill is pale red at the base, white at the end ; and the 

 frontal plate is bluish-white. The iris crimson. The feet 

 bluish-grey, tinged with olive ; the bare part of the tibia 

 orange ; the claws olivaceous. The head and neck are 

 greyish-black ; the lower part of the neck and the upper 

 parts of the body generally are of a dark bluish-grey, seeming 

 black at a distance ; the lower parts are dull brownish-grey. 

 The edge of the wing, and the outer margin of the first 

 alular feather and first quill, are whitish. 



Length to end of tail 16 inches ; extent of wings 22 ; 

 wing from flexure 8f ; tail 2\ ; bill along the ridge, in- 

 cluding the frontal plate, 2\, along the edge of lower man- 

 dible 1^- ; tarsus 1-^ ; first toe \\, its claw -fe ; second 



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