94 AMERICAN BITTERN. 



with an oblique papillate flap on each side; the lower mandible deeply- 

 concave. The tongue is of moderate length, measuring if inches, emar- 

 ginate at the base, trigonal, flat above, tapering to a point. The oesophagus, 

 which is 12 inches long, gradually diminishes in diameter from 1^ inches to 

 1 inch. The proventriculus is 1^ inches long, its glandules cylindrical, 

 forming a complete belt, the largest 3 twelfths long. The stomach is 

 roundish, 2 inches in diameter, compressed; its muscular coat thin, and 

 composed of large fasciculi; its tendinous spaces nearly 1 inch in diameter; 

 its inner coat even, soft, and destitute of epithelium. There is a small 

 roundish pyloric lobe, 4 twelfths in diameter; the aperture of the pylorus is 

 extremely small, having a diameter of only half a twelfth. The intestine is 

 long and very slender, 6 feet 3 inches in length, its diameter at the upper 

 part 3 twelfths, diminishing to 2i twelfths, for about a foot from the 

 extremity enlarged to 5 eighths; the rectum 6i inches long; the ccecum 5 

 twelfths long, lj twelfths in diameter at the base, tapering to 1 twelfth, the 

 extremity rounded. The stomach contained fragments of Crustacea. 



The trachea is S| inches long, cylindrical; the rings 154, and ossified; its 

 diameter at the top 5^ twelfths, diminishing in the space of an inch and a 

 half to 3 twelfths, and so continuing nearly to the end, when it contracts to 

 2\ twelfths. The last rings are much extended, and divided into two 

 portions, the last transverse half ring arched, and 5 twelfths in length. The 

 bronchi are in consequence very wide at the top, gradually taper, and are 

 composed of about 25 half rings. The contractor muscles are very feeble; 

 the sterno-tracheal slender; a pair of inferior laryngeal muscles inserted into 

 the first bronchial rins:. 



AMERICAN BITTERN. 



-t-Ardea Lentiginosa, Swains. 



PLATE CCCLXV Male and Female. 



It never was my fortune to have a good opportunity of observing all the 

 habits of this very remarkable bird, which, in many respects, differs from 

 most other Herons. It is a winter resident in the Peninsula of the Floridas, 

 as well as many of the keys or islets which border its shores. But the 



