162 LOUISIANA HERON. 



the bird is full grown. The red of the neck is changed for tints of blue and 

 purple, as is that of the back, although remnants of it are still seen. The 

 fore part of the neck is white, mixed with brownish-red; the legs lighter. 



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 scapulas, 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 S twelfths, the lower mandible dilatable to 1 inch 1 twelfth. Tongue 

 1 inch 1 twelfth long, flattened, thin; grooved above, tapering to a point. 

 (Esophagus 16 inches long, at its commencement li inches in width, soon 

 after contracting 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 £ inches; the gall-bladder 8 twelfths long, 

 3 twelfths in breadth. The pro ventricular 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 

 1\ 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 

 ccecum 3 twelfths long, \\ twelfths wide; the cloaca globular, 1 inch 2 

 twelfths in diameter. 



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

 flattened. The rings firm, 2 IS, and 4 dimidiate. Bronchial half rings 20 

 and 18. Muscles as in the other species. 



