184 SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 



to carpal joint 13|; extent of wings 41; wing from flexure 12^; tail 5-^; bill 

 along the ridge 4 T 7 j, along the edge of lower mandible 4|; bare part of tibia 

 2\\ tarsus 4 T \; hind toe 1 T V, its claw -/^j second toe 2-^, its claw -f|; third 

 toe 3^, its claw y§; fourth toe 2^, its claw j\. 



The female is somewhat less, but resembles the male. 



Length to end of tail 25 inches, to end of claws 33^; to end of wings 24, 

 to carpal joint 12f ; extent of wings 42; wing from flexure 12; tail 4|; bill 

 along the gap 4|. 



The young when fully fledged is of a much lighter tint; the head and 

 fore-neck brownish-grey, the lower parts greyish-brown. The bill is yel- 

 lowish-green, darker toward the end; the feet much darker than in the adult. 

 Excepting the quills, primary-coverts, tail-feathers, and the rump, all the 

 plumage is marked with spots of white, of which there is one along the 

 centre of each feather; those on the neck elongated, on the back, wings, and 

 breast, lanceolate. In this state it is figured in the continuation of Wilson's 

 American Ornithology, by the Prince of Musignano. 



Length to end of tail 23 inches. 



This remarkable bird has exercised the ingenuity of the systematizing 

 ornithologists, some of whom have considered it as a Heron, others a Crane, 

 while many have made it a Rail, and many more a genus apart, but allied to 

 the Rails, or to the Herons, or to both. It seems in truth to be a large 

 Rail, with the wings and feet approaching in form to those of the Herons; 

 but while frivolous disputes might be carried on ad libitum as to its loca- 

 tion in the system of nature, were we merely to consider its exterior, it is 

 fortunate that we possess a means of determining its character with certainty: 

 — if we examine its digestive organs, we shall at once see if it be a Rail, or 

 a Heron, or anything else. If a Heron, it will have a very wide oesophagus, 

 a roundish, thin-walled stomach, very slender intestines, and a single short 

 obtuse coecum; if a Rail or Gallinule, or bird of that tribe, it will have a 

 narrow mouth, a narrow oesophagus, a very muscular stomach, intestines of 

 moderate width, and two moderately long, rather wide coeca. Here then 

 are two specimens, shot in Florida, and preserved in spirits. 



The first, which is found to be a female, has the mouth narrow, measuring 

 only 7 twelfths across; the tongue very long and extremely slender, trigonal, 

 pointed, extending to within half an inch of the tip of the lower mandible, 

 being 3 T 7 2 inches in length. The oesophagus, abed, which is 12 inches 

 long, is narrow in its whole length, its diameter at the upper part being 6 

 twelfths, below the middle of the neck 8 twelfths. The proventriculus, b c, 

 is nearly 1 inch long, 9 twelfths in its greatest diameter, bulbiform; its 

 glandules cylindrical, 1-^ twelfths long. Between the termination of the 

 proventriculus, and the commencement of the stomach, the space, c d, is 



