SCOLOPACEOUSCOURLAN. 391 



longitudinal, and somewhat elliptical: the tongue is elastic, narrow, and 

 acute. The bill is yellow at base, and of a corneous blue-black at tip : 

 the eyelids are yellow, the iris brown : the legs pale lead-color, and the 

 nails black. 



The feet are elongated, and much of the tibia naked, the bare space 

 measuring three inches : the tarsus, four and a half inches long, much 

 exceeds the middle toe : the four toes are slender, all cleft from the base, 

 long, unequal, and compressed ; the inner is a little shorter than the 

 outer, the middle longest, measuring three inches without the nail ; the 

 hind toe is rather more than one inch, and slender : it is inserted in an 

 unusual manner, opposite to the base of the inner toe, but much higher, 

 and with only the last joint, which is very short, resting on the ground. 

 The unfeathered part of the tibia is covered behind with transverse scu- 

 tella, the anterior with large angulose scales ; the tarsus behind has a 

 double longitudinal series of knobs, before it is covered with oblique 

 scutella ; the cnemidia, that is, the lower part of the naked tibia, are 

 squamulose ; the toes scutellate, and warty beneath : the nails are mod- 

 erate, arcuated, acute ; the hind nail is rather the smallest : the middle 

 is the largest, and dilates internally into a sharp edge, perfectly entire, 

 and by no means pectinated, any opinions or statements to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



The body is compressed, but fleshy : the neck cylindrical and slender : 

 the face and lora entirely feathered. When it is stated that some speci- 

 mens have these parts bare, it is because the other Gruarauna, which is 

 an Ibis, has been confounded with it. The tail is moderate, scarcelv 

 six inches long, plane, broad, rounded, and composed of twelve broad 

 feathers. 



The wings are twelve and a half inches long, ample, and rounded- 

 obtuse : the first quill is moderately long, and equal with the eighth, 

 and by more than two inches shorter than the second, which is equal to 

 the sixth : it is peculiarly shaped, narrower at base than at tip, where 

 it is very blunt : the third is the longest of all, being however but little 

 longer than the fourth. 



The feathers of the neck are short, and rather narrow : those of the 

 body and wing-coverts are rounded on their margins, and soft and 

 dense, the inferior are somewhat loose on their borders. There is no 

 naked place on the sides of the breast, as in the Herons. The general 

 color of the Courlan is a deep chocolate brown, or fuscous sooty hue, 

 reigning all over the bird : the feathers are however paler on tlicir mar- 

 gins, and there is on each from the base along the middle, including the 

 shaft, with the exception of the tip, a large, broad lanceolate, pure white 

 spot. (In the Ibis Guarauna, the white occupies the margin instead 

 of the middle of the feathers.) This white spot is larger in proportion 

 to the size of the feather, so that it is more conspicuous on the wing- 



