458 



EGRETTA. EGRET. 



The Egrets differ from the Herons chiefly in being of a 

 more slender form, with the neck and legs extremely elon- 

 gated, and the latter having a larger portion of the tibia 

 bare. The bill is also generally longer and more attenuated, 

 with its dorsal outline a little deflected toward the end. 

 Many of the species are also furnished with very long dorsal 

 plumes, of which the filaments are disunited. But all the 

 species are not equally marked by these characters, some of 

 them approaching to the Herons on the one hand, and to 

 the Bitterns on the other. The most characteristic may be 

 described as follows : — 



Bill much longer than the head, strong but rather 

 slender, straight, compressed, tapering to a point ; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line straight until toward the end, 

 when it is a little deflected, the ridge broad and convex at 

 the base, gradually narrowed to the point, the nasal depres- 

 sion narrow-oblong, with a groove extending from it to near 

 the end, the sides convex, the edges sharp, often serrulate, 

 with a notch close to the tip, which is very acute ; lower 

 mandible with the angle very long and extremely narrow, 

 the dorsal line slightly ascending and almost straight, the 

 sides concave and sloping outwards ; the edges direct, sharp, 

 often serrulate ; the tip acuminate ; gape-line straight, com- 

 mencing under the eye. 



Mouth rather narrow, but extensile ; the upper mandible 

 slightly concave, with three longitudinal ridges, the lower 

 deeply concave. Tongue emarginate and papillate at the 

 base, long, slender, trigonal, tapering to a point. (Esophagus 

 very wide in its whole length; proventriculus dilated. 

 Stomach a hemispherical sac, with a round pyloric lobe. 

 Intestine very long and extremely slender ; no caeca, but an 



