AMERICAN BITTERN. 



ig; 



1. The oes.'phagul, enveloping muscles assume peculiar characters for the breeding season. They 

 weighed, with the skin, six ounces. May be present in other species, for the purpose of shalciug the skin of 

 the neck: for example, the constrictor colli of Owen, seen in the Apteryx, may be somethin<' similar. 



2. The scapular prolongation of the oesophagul muscle has an analogy to the muscle" that assists to 

 empty the crop in Pigeons and in some other birds, but they have a different attachment ; vis., to the inside 

 «f the coracoid bones. 



3. The occipital vocal. I have never seen described anything just like this muscle, neither have I 

 found it in other birds. A Cochin-china fowl had a flat muscle starting below tiie ear and just in front of 

 it, and extending back some two inches, to be inserted on the skin of the neck, its use evidently beimr to raise 

 the feathers of the neck. 



i. The maxillary vocal ; I have never seen anything like this muscle. 



0. The thoracic is a most peculiar muscle at this time, being surcharged with blood and evidently 

 temporarily greatly enlarged. 



G. The mandibular vocal are also singular muscles, surcharged with blood and evidentlv enlarged for 

 the occasion. I am under the impression that I have seen these muscles either in this species before or in 

 some other Heron, but I do not appear to have made a note of it. 



7. The retractor to the superior larynx is not present in the Least Bittern, nor in most birds ; I found 

 it, however in a Cochlnchina fowl, but in this case it extended to the body, and was attached to the lower 

 portion of the termination of the furcula. 



The inferior laryngeal modifications and the bubbles in the tissue to prevent undue pressure, the one on 

 the neck and the other on the bronchials, together with the crop-supporting tendons of the neck, appear to be 

 common modifications, aj'ising with requisite circumstances. 



On August 8th, ISSiJ, after the above account was printed I procured a young male Bittern, fully 

 grown but bearing marks of having only recently assumed the full plumage of the first 3-ear. 



I n this specimen, quite to my surprise, I find not only that the vocal muscles about the neck are 

 represented by the merest rudiments, but that the swollen appearance on the inside of the bronchial tubes 

 near the tjmpaniform membrane is completely absent. (See fig. 40, T. where I figure the inside of one 



Fig. 40. Illustrating internal organs of young American Bittern. B, Cloaca : A, peculiar appendage; 

 I, intestine ; B, B, coecum; II, sto nach ; K, pyloric lobe; L, valve of pyloric ; A, inside, F, outside. T, 

 tympaniform membrane : V, vent. 



