( 606 ) 



SNOWY HERON. 



Ardea candidissima. 



I 



PLATE CCXLII. Vol. III. p. 317- 



The elongated feathers of the back are composed of two scapular 

 series, and of those crossing the humerus. The mouth as in the other 

 species. Tongue 1 inch 3 twelfths long, as in the last species. (Eso- 

 phagus 14 inches long, at the commencement 1 inch 9 twelfths in 

 width, contracting to 10 twelfths ; its greatest diameter within the tho- 

 rax 1 inch 4 twelfths ; proventricular belt 8 twelfths in breadth. Stomach 

 remarkably small, roundish, 10 twelfths in diameter, with a globular 

 pyloric lobe, 4^ twelfths in diameter ; its muscular coat thin, the ten- 

 dons 4 twelfths in breadth ; the inner surface smooth and soft. Lobes 

 of the liver 1^ inch and 1;^ inch in length ; gall-bladder oblong, 9 

 twelfths long, 5 twelfths broad. Intestine 3 feet 10^ inches long, of 

 24 folds ; its greatest width in the duodenal part 1^ twelfth, its smallest 

 near the rectum 1 twelfth. The rectum is 2 inches 10 twelfths long, 

 2| twelfths in breadth ; the cloaca globular, 1;^ inch in diameter ; the 

 coecum a small knob 1 twelfth long, and of the same width. 



Trachea 10 inches long, its average breadth 2j twelfths, consider- 

 ably flattened ; the rings 188, with 4 dimidiate. Bronchial half rings 

 18 and 16. Muscles as in the other species. 



LEAST BITTERN. 



Ardea exilis, Gmel. 



PLATE CCX. Vol. III. p. 77- 



At Cayo Island, Oppelousas, 13th April 1837. Mr Harris saw a 

 flock of about twenty individuals of this species arriving from the west- 

 ward, before a heavy gale from that quarter, all of which plunged, as 

 it were, into the marsh, and hid themselves so closely, from fatigue or 



