28 GRALLATORES. BOTAURUS. BrirTeRN. 
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 scutellated ; 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 
