GREAT AMERICAN EGRET. 607 



rectviin, b df, is 3 inches long ; the cloaca, def, globular, li inch in dia- 

 meter ; the ccecum, c, single, as in the other Herons, 3 twelfths long, 

 and nearly 2 twelfths in diameter. 



The trachea is 1 foot 9j inches long, of nearly iiniform diameter, 

 flattened a little for about half its length, its greatest breadth 3^ 

 twelfths ; the rings 285, the last four rings divided and arched. The 

 contractor muscles are extremely thin, the sterno-tracheal moderate, 

 and coming off at the distance of 1 inch from the lower extremity, 

 from which place also there proceeds to the two last rings a pair of 

 slender inferior laryngeal muscles. The bronchi are very short, of 

 about two half rings. 



Tapayaxin. 



The animal represented on the plate is the Tafayaxin, of Hernan- 

 dez, Phrynosonia orbicularis of Wiegmann, Tapaya orbicularis of Cuvier. 

 The specimen from which it was drawn was entrusted to my care by 

 my friend Richakd Harlan, M. D., to whom it was presented by Mr 

 NuTTALL, who found it in California. A notice respecting this spe- 

 cies by Dr Harlan will be found in the American Journal of Science 

 and Arts, vol. xxxi. 



