€06 



GREAT AMERICAN EGRET. 



its claw li2 ; second toe 2y^5, its claw -^^ ; third toe 3||, its claw /^ ; 

 fourth toe 3-/^, its claw l\. Weight 2^ lb. 



The Female is similar to the male, but somewhat smaller. 



The roof of the mouth is slightly concave, with a median and two 

 lateral longitudinal ridges, the palate convex, the posterior aperture of 

 the nares linear, without an anterior slit. The mouth is rather narrow, 

 measuring only 8 twelfths across, but is dilatable to 1^ inch, the branches 

 of the lower mandible being very elastic. The aperture of the ear 

 is very small, being 2 twelfths in diameter, and roundish. The oeso- 

 phagus is 2 feet 2 inches long, 1 inch and 4 twelfths in diameter, ex- 

 tremely thin, the longitudinal fibres 

 within the transverse, the inner 

 coat raised into numerous longitu- 

 dinal ridges. The oesophagus con- 

 tinues of uniform diameter, and 

 passes as it were directly into the 

 stomach, there being no enlarge- 

 ment at its termination indicative 

 of the proventriculus, which how- 

 ever exists, but in a modified form, 

 there being at the termination of 

 the gullet eight longitudinal series 

 of large mucous crypts, about half 

 an inch long, and immediately af- 

 terwards a continuous belt, 1^ inch 

 in breadth, of small cylindrical 

 mucous crypts with minute aper- 

 tures. Beyond this the stomach 

 forms a hemispherical sac 1^ inch 

 in diameter, of a membranous struc- 

 ture, having externally beneath the 

 cellular coat a layer of slender mus- 

 cular fibres, convex towards two roundish tendons, and internally a 

 soft, thin, smooth lining, perforated by innumerable minute apertures 

 of glandules. The intestine is very long and extremely slender, measur- 

 ing 6 feet 7 inches in length, its average diameter 2 twelfths. The 



