390 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 



by Mr. Titian Peale, at Key Tavernier, on the Florida reef. Mr. Peale 

 took ii for the much disputed Crying Bird of Bartram. Mr. Peale saw 

 no other individual, but that we have described was brought by Mr. ¥. 

 Cozzens from Florida : one or two killed on the coast of New Jersey 

 near Long Branch may be seen in the American Museum at New York. 

 Mr. Peale did not hear the bird utter any sound ; it was very unwilling 

 to fly, and caused him some trouble to make it rise from the thick man- 

 groves and other bushes where it kept. It appears to inhabit the low 

 shores and swamps of the rivers and lakes of Florida, and perhaps 

 Georgia, being merely a straggler north of this. Even there we must 

 conclude it to be rather a scarce species, as Mr. Peale could never get 

 information about it, and even upon showing it to the most experienced 

 sportsmen, they declared themselves unacquainted with it, except a few 

 who called it Indian Hen, as they probably would any other rare bird 

 of its size. It runs through the grass exactly in the manner of the 

 Rails, compressing its narrow body to pass through a small hole, and 

 very difficult to catch when wounded. 



The Scolopaceous Courlan is two feet and three-fourths of an inch 

 long, and three feet eight inches in extent. The bill, which has but a 

 small gape, and by no means extending like that of the Herons to 

 beneath the eyes, measures four and three-quarter inches in length : of 

 course it is no longer than the head, and may be called much length- 

 ened ; it is slender, quite straight, much compressed, being more than 

 thrice higher than broad, and of a corneous consistence : the' upper 

 mandible is of equal height almost throughout, slender, from the base 

 to the middle it is compressed, and channelled each side with a deep 

 furrow covered by a kind of cere-like membrane ; from where the furrow 

 ends it swells slightly on each side, being there quite smooth, and even 

 appearing polished : there is no vestige of a notch, as in the Herons, 

 and the margins are perfectly entire : these margins from the middle to 

 the angle of the mouth are revolute inside and obtuse, towards the tip 

 they are nearly vertical and acute, forming throughout inside a straight 

 medial channel ; the upper ridge is somewhat depressed at base, then 

 slightly inclined to the tip, being obtuse, and nowhere sharp : the lower 

 mandible at base and beyond the middle is of nearly equal height, 

 straightish in the middle ; on the sides at base it is covered by a very 

 thin membrane, and slightly furrowed lengthwise ; from the middle to 

 the point it is as smooth and polished as the upper one, excessively 

 compressed, with the ridge prominent, rather acute at tip, the margins 

 are perpendicular, approximated, very entire ; the bifurcation of the 

 sides is very long, extending beyond the middle of the mandible ; it is 

 narrow, and the mental angle formed by it naked, acute, entering the 

 corneous substance of the bill. The nostrils are placed rather distant 

 from the base, and in the lateral furrow, they are entirely perforated, 



