SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. RAT 
genus apart, but allied to the Rails, or to the Herons or to both. It 
seems in truth to be a large Rail, with the wings and feet approach- 
ing in form to those of the Herons ; but while frivolous disputes might 
be carried on ad libitum as to its location in the system of nature, were 
we merely to consider its exterior; it is fortunate that we possess a 
means of determining its character with certainty :—if we examine its 
digestive organs, we shall at once see if it be a Rail, or a Heron, or 
anything else. If a Heron, it will have a very wide cesophagus, a 
roundish, thin-walled stomach, very slender intestines, and a single 
short obtuse ccecum ; if a Rail or Gallinule, or bird of that tribe, it will 
have a narrow mouth, a narrow cesophagus, a very muscular stomach, 
intestines of moderate width, and two moderately long, rather wide 
coeca. Here then are two specimens, shot in Florida, and preserved in 
spirits. 
The first, which is found to be a female, has the mouth narrow, 
measuring only 7 twelfths across; the tongue very long and extremely 
slender, trigonal, pointed, extending to within half an inch of the tip 
of the lower mandible, being 3,% inches in length. ‘The cesophagus, 
abcd, whichis 12 inches long, is narrow in its whole length, its diame- 
ter at the upper part being 6 twelfths, below the middle of the neck 8 
twelfths. ‘The proventriculus, bc, is nearly 1 inch long, 9 twelfths in 
its greatest diameter, bulbiform; its glandules cylindrical, 13 twelfth 
long. Between the termination of the proventriculus, and the com- 
mencement of the stomach, the space, cd, is more elongated than usual, 
an inch and 2 twelfths, and presents the appearance of a tube curved 
toward the left in the form of the letter S. The circular fibres of this 
part are strong, and its epithelium is very thick, soft, and raised into 
twelve very prominent rounded longitudinal ruge. The stomach, pro- 
perly so called, de fg, is an extremely powerful gizzard, of an orbi- 
cular form, compressed, with its axis a little inclined toward the right 
side, its length 1 inch and 9 twelfths, its breadth 1 inch and 8 twelfths, 
its thickness 11 twelfths. The left lateral muscle, df, is much larger 
than the right, occupying nearly one-half of the organ ; the muscles are 
thick, but not very remarkably so, their greatest thickness being 4 
twelfths ; the epithelium is very hard and rugous. The duodenum, 
g 4 2, curves in the usual manner, folding back upon itself at the dis- 
tance of 3inches. The intestine, g 4 ijk, is of moderate length, 31 
inches, its greatest diameter 3 twelfths; the rectum, & J, 3 inches long, 
