300 AMERICAN BITTERN. 
The dimensions of a young male shot in autumn were as follows: — 
To end of tail 24 inches, to end of wings 24, to end of claws 29; 
extent of wings 26; wing from flexure 103. Weight 1 lb. 14 oz. 
In dissecting this bird, the extreme compression of the body strikes 
one with surprise, its greatest breadth being scarcely an inch and a 
half, although it is capable of being much dilated. The great 
length and thickness of the neck are also remarkable ; but these cir- 
cumstances are not peculiar to the present species, being equally ob- 
served in many other Herons. On the roof of the mouth are three 
longitudinal ridges ; the aperture of the posterior nares is linear, with 
an oblique iiap on each side; the lower mandible is deeply concave, 
its crura elastic and expansile ; the tongue 2;'; inches long, sagittate 
at the base with a single very slender papilla on each side, trigonal, 
tapering, flattened above ; the width of the mouth is 10 twelfths ; but the 
pharynx is much wider. The cesophagus, a 6 c, which is fifteen inches 
long, is very wide, having at its upper part, when inflated, a diameter 
of 2 inches, but gradually contracting to 4 inch at its entrance into 
the thorax, and again expanding to 1 inch. Its walls are extremely 
thin, and when contracted, its mucous coat forms strongly marked lon- 
gitudinal plaits. ‘The proventriculus is very wide, its glandules oblong 
and arranged in a belt 10 twelfths in breadth. The stomach, ¢, is of 
moderate size, membranous, that is with its muscular coat very thin, 
and not forming lateral muscles ; its tendinous spaces large and round, 
its inner coat smooth and soft; its greatest diameter 1 inch. There 
is a smail roundish pyloric lobe, as in other Herons. Both lobes of the 
liver lie on the right side of the proventriculus; one, 7, being 1 inch 10 
twelfths, the other, 7, 1 inch 2 twelfths long; the gall-bladder large, 11 
twelfths long. The intestine is long and very slender, measuring 4 
feet 7 inches, with a diameter of only 2 twelfths at its upper part, and 
14 twelfth at the lower, when inflated ; the rectum 4 inches long, and 
4 twelfths in diameter, its anterior extremity rounded, and having a 
minute papilliform termination, only 1 twelfth long. 
The trachea, which is 123 inches long, differs from that of ordinary 
Herons in being much compressed, especially at its upper and lower ex- 
tremities ; the middle part being less so. It is also proportionally 
wider, and its rings are narrower. At the top its diameter is 5 twelfths, 
at the middle 41 twelfths, towards the lower part 43 twelfths, at the 
