GREAT WHITE HERON. 597 



papillate ridges and a median ridge, which runs to the point of the 

 mandible ; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, 1^ inch in length. 

 Tongue 4^ inches long, slender, tapering, trigonal, sagittate at the base, 

 with a large pointed papilla on each side, flat above, with a median 

 groove for half its length, afterwards convex, the tip acute. There is 

 a large gular sac, although covered by feathers. The oesophagus is 2 

 feet 7 inches long, of great width in its whole extent, its diameter oppo- 

 site the glottis being 2^ inches, in the other parts from 2 to 1|. Its 

 walls are very thin, but with the external muscular fibres distinct ; the 

 inner coat longitudinally plicate. 



The heart is of moderate size, 1 inch 10 twelfths in length, 1^ in 

 breadth. The aorta branches immediately in the usual manner, send- 

 ing oflF to the left a common carotid and subclavian, which branches at 

 the distance of 7| twelfths ; to the right the same ; and more to the 

 same side, the carotid properly so called, which is smaller than either 

 of the other vessels. The liver is of moderate size, its lobes very un- 

 equal, the left 2i inches, the right 3| inches in length. There is an 

 enormous accumulation of fat in the omentum, covering nearly the en- 

 tire surface of the proventriculus and stomach, and extending under 

 the intestine, being in one place 9 twelfths thick. 



On entering the thorax the oesophagus immediately enlarges to 

 2| inches, and gradually increases to 3, which is the greatest breadth of 

 the proventriculus, ale. The stomach, cp e, is a very large round sac, 

 3 inches in width, a little compressed, with roundish tendons, p, | inch in 

 diameter ; its muscular coat extremely thin, and formed of very slender 

 fasciculi ; the inner coat soft and smooth. The proven tricular glands 

 form a complete belt, 1^ inch in breadth, at the upper part of which are 

 numerous irregularly dispersed very laxge apertures of mucous crypts. 

 The pyloric lobe of the stomach, e, is globular, 9 twelfths in diameter. 

 The aperture of the pylorus 1^ twelfth in diameter, without valve. The 

 intestine, efj k, doubles in the usual manner, to form the duodenum, efg, 

 at the distance of 6 inches, then proceeds to the right lobe of the liver, 

 bends backward, and is convoluted, with 18 turns, terminating in the 

 rectum above the proventriculus ; its length 7 feet 10 inches ; the 

 width of the duodenum 3| twelfths, that of the rest of the intestine 

 pretty uniformly 3 twelfths, a little narrowed towards the rectum, which 

 is 5^ twelfths long, and at its commencement forms a single coecum, 

 ^ inch long, and 3 twelfths in width. The average width of the rec- 



