LOUISIANA HERON. 605 



Trachea 13 inches long, its breadth uniformly 3 twelfths. It is 

 considerably flattened, which is not the case with the other species. 

 The rings 180, and 4 dimidiate. Bronchial half rings 20 and 18. The 

 miiscles as in the other species. 



LOUISIANA HERON. 



AUDEA LUDOVICIANA, WiLS. 

 PLATE CCXVII. Vol. III. p. 136. 



Male from Galveston Island. In all the Herons that are furnished 

 with elongated feathers on the fore part of the back, these feathers 

 form part of a series on each side, arranged in the line of the scapulae, 

 and extending to the middle of the neck above. In all the Herons also, 

 when the neck is curved, the oesophagus and trachea pass above 

 the line of the vertebrae at its lower part on the right side. The 

 mouth is in this as in the other species, its width 8 twelfths, the lower 

 mandible dilatable to 1 inch 1 twelfth. Tongue 1 inch 1 twelfth long, 

 flattened, thin ; grooved above, tapering to a point. CEsophagus 16 

 inches long, at its commencement 1^ inch in width, soon after contract- 

 ing to 10 twelfths, and so continuing until it enters the thorax, where it 

 enlarges to 1 inch. The right lobe of the liver is 1 inch 11 twelfths in 

 length, the left lobe 1^ inch ; the gall-bladder 8 twelfths long, 3 twelfths 

 in breadth. The proventricular glands form a belt 10 twelfths in 

 breadth. The stomach is small, only 1 inch in diameter, its muscular 

 coat rather thick, the tendons roundish, half an inch in breadth ; the 

 pyloric lobe 7| twelfths long, 4 twelfths in diameter ; the inner surface 

 of the stomach as in the preceding species. The intestine forms 30 

 folds, and measures 4 feet 7 inches in length ; its greatest width 

 scarcely greater than that of a crow quill, being only 1 twelfth in the 

 duodenal part, and almost precisely uniform in its whole length. The 

 rectum is 3| inches long, 3 twelfths in width ; the coecum 3 twelfths 

 long, 1^ twelfth wide ; the cloaca globular, 1 inch 2 twelfths in dia- 

 meter. 



Trachea 12^ inches long, of the uniform breadth of 2 twelfths, mo- 

 derately flattened. The rings firm, 218, and 4 dimidiate. Bronchial 

 half rings 20 and 18. Muscles as in the other species. 



