GREY HERON. 441 



Male. — The Common or Cinereous Heron, which in 

 many respects is one of the most interesting of our native 

 birds, is at least as worthy as most of a minute description, 

 although there is little risk of its being mistaken by the 

 student for any other bird. Its body is rather large, but 

 much compressed, so as to be very light ; the neck very long 

 and of considerable thickness ; the head rather large, oblong, 

 and much compressed. 



The bill is about half as long again as the head, stout, 

 straight, compressed, tapering, and pointed ; the upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line almost quite straight, being but 

 slightly decimate toward the end, the ridge broadly convex 

 at the base, but gradually narrowed ; the nasal space oblong 

 and filled by a membrane, with a narrow groove extending 

 to near the end, the edges sharp and irregularly serrulate, 

 the tip acute ; the lower mandible with the angle very long 

 and extremely narrow, the dorsal line ascending and con- 

 siderably convex, the sides concave and ascending, the edges 

 direct and serrulate, the tip acuminate. The roof of the 

 mouth is slightly concave, with three prominent longitudinal 

 ridges. The posterior aperture of the nares wide, margined 

 with small papillae. The aperture of the glottis without 

 papillae on its edges. The tongue is sagittate and slightly 

 papillate at the base, long, narrow, trigonal, fleshy, flat 

 above, pointed, with the tip horny ; its length three inches 

 and two-twelfths. The mouth is rather narrow, but dilatable 

 from the flexibility and elasticity of the crura of the lower 

 jaw. The oesophagus, which is twenty-two inches long, is 

 very wide, being, when inflated, two inches in diameter at 

 the upper part, and in the rest of its extent an inch and a 

 half. The proventricular portion is still wide, and with the 

 stomach forms a large sac of an oblong form, three inches and 

 a quarter in length and two inches in width. The breadth 

 of the band of oblong proventricular glandules varies from 

 an inch to an inch and a half. The walls of the oesophagus 

 are very thin ; the muscular coat of the stomach is also thin, 

 its fibres pale, its tendons small, the posterior one inch, the 

 anterior half-an-inch in diameter ; the inner coat even, soft, 

 and smooth. The pylorus is one-twelfth in width, and pre- 



