28 GRALLATORES. BOTAURUS. BITTERN. 



GENUS BOTAURUS. BITTERN. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill of the same length, or rather longer than the head, 

 strong, higher than broad, the mandibles of equal length, 

 the upper rather deeper than the under one, sulcated for two- 

 thirds of its length, and gently curving from the base to the 

 point. Culmen broad, and flat at the base, but becoming 

 narrow and rounded from before the nostrils to the tip. 

 Under mandible strong, tapering to the point, its angle 

 trifling and indistinctly marked. Tomia of both mandibles 

 even, bending inwards, very sharp, and finely serrated near 

 the tip. Chin-angle reaching beyond the middle of the bill. 

 Lores and orbits naked. 



Nostrils basal, linear, and longitudinal, placed in the fur- 

 row of the maxilla, and partly covered by a naked mem- 

 brane. 



Legs of mean length ; toes long and slender, all unequal ; 

 the middle toe of equal length with the tarsus ; hind toe 

 long, articulated with the interior toe, and on the same 

 plane ; claws long, subfalcate, that of the middle toe pecti- 

 nated. 



Front of the tarsus seutellated ; back part of the tarsus re- 

 ticulated. 



Wings long, rounded ; the three first quills the longest, 

 and those nearly equal. 



In plumage, the hinder part of the neck covered with 

 down ; the sides and front with long lax feathers, which can 

 be expanded laterally at pleasure. No elongated feathers on 

 the hinder part of the head, or on the back. 



Till very lately, the Bitterns have formed a section of the 

 genus Ardea in ornithological systems ; but as they possess 



