EUROPEAN BITTERN. 411 



chiefly made up of feathers. It is much smaller and of a 

 less elongated form than the Grey Heron. Its body is ex- 

 tremely compressed behind ; the neck long and of moderate 

 thickness ; but both seem large on account of the elongation 

 and arrangement of the feathers. The head is oblong and 

 compressed. 



The bill, which is about the same length as the head, or 

 a little longer, is straight, rather slender, compressed, and 

 tapering to a point ; the upper mandible with the dorsal line 

 straight for nearly two-thirds, then slightly decimate ; the 

 ridge flattened at the base, then narrowed and convex, the 

 groove extending nearly to the end ; the sides flat at the 

 base, little convex in the rest of their extent ; the edges 

 sharp, serrulate, with a notch close to the tip, which is 

 acute ; the lower mandible with the angle very long and 

 extremely narrow ; the dorsal line straight and ascending ; 

 the sides slightly convex ; the edges sharp, serrulate ; the 

 tip acuminate ; the gape-line almost straight. 



Internally the upper mandible is considerably concave, 

 with three longitudinal ridges. The tongue is an inch and 

 ten-twelfths long, deeply emarginate at the base, narrow, 

 trigonal, tapering to the point. The oesophagus is seven- 

 teen inches long ; for two inches of the width of an inch and 

 a half, then contracting to eight-twelfths, but presently en- 

 larging to an inch and two-twelfths, and so continuing until 

 its entrance into the thorax, when it enlarges to an inch and 

 ten-twelfths ; its walls very thin. The stomach is large, 

 thin, rounded, with a roundish pyloric lobe. The intestine 

 is six feet seven inches in length, from three-twelfths to two- 

 twelfths in width ; the rectum wider, with an oblong coecal 

 head ; the cloaca globular. The lobes of the liver are very 

 unequal, and the gall-bladder is an inch and a half long, 

 but only three-twelfths in breadth. 



The nostrils are linear, seven-and-a-half-twelfths long. 

 The eyes large. The aperture of the ear rather small, its 

 greatest diameter being four-twelfths. The feet are of 

 moderate length, stout ; the tibia bare for the space of only 

 an inch ; the tarsus with very broad scutella before, reticu- 

 late behind. Toes long, stout, scutellate above, flattened 



