38 GRALLATORES. BOTAURUS. BITTERN. 



legs and toes are wax-yellow, tinged with green. The 

 tibia? are clothed with feathers to the tarsal joint. 

 The male and female are alike. 



bird. Fig. 2. The young bird after the first moulting. 



The crown of the head is blackish-green. The back and 

 scapulars chesnut - brown, margined with yellowish- 

 white. On each side of the throat is a spot of white- 

 Front part of the neck yellowish-brown, mixed with 

 streaks of white; sides of the neck reddish-brown. 

 Feathers of the breast deep liver-brown, with a glossy 

 lustre ; and margined with yellowish- white. Belly and 

 flanks yellowish-white, with streaks of brown. Tail 

 , blackish-green. Legs pale olive-green. Bill yellowish- 



brown. 



GENUS NYCTICORAX. NIGHT-HERON. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill very strong, rather longer than the head, compressed ; 

 the upper mandible curving towards the point, and_ slightly 

 bulging towards the base ; maxilla sulcated for three-fourths 

 of its length, and emarginated ; culmen rounded ; tomia of 

 both mandibles strait and sharp, that of the under mandible 

 entering within the upper one. Nostrils basal, longitudinal, 

 placed in the furrow of the maxilla, and covered above by a 

 naked membrane; lores and orbits naked. Legs of mean 

 length, slender ; toes, three anterior and one posterior ; mid- 

 dle toe not so long as the tarsus ; exterior toe connected by a 

 membrane to the middle one as far as the first joint. Claws 

 short, falcated ; that of the middle toe pectinated. Tibiae 

 naked for a short space above the tarsal joint. 



Wings having the first quill-feather shorter than the se- 

 cond ; the third the longest of all. In plumage the occiput 



