BOTAURUS. 307 



The heart is very large. A diaphragm l . The vena cava between the 

 liver and heart is longer than in any other bird ; it is about an inch 

 long. The trachea follows the oesophagus ; it is made up of circular 

 cartilages with notches in them laterally. The lungs go rather lower 

 down than in other birds, as far as to the last rib. 



Its flesh was very red. There was flexion forwards between the 

 head and first vertebra ; between the first and second, second and third, 

 third and fourth, fourth and fifth ; and between the fifth and sixth, 

 which was the greatest of any. All these five joints come only to a 

 straight line in extension ; the flexion backwards began at the sixth 

 joint, which was the greatest, and continued on to the thirteenth joint ; 

 at the fourteenth vertebra began the flexion forwards. The greatest 

 extension of all these thirteen vertebrae brought them to a straight line. 



In the place of the crop there was a cavity filled with air, and 

 between the oesophagus and vertebrae of the neck, just between the two 

 clavicles, there was another [air-]cavity. 



Of the Genus of Birds called Bittern [Botaurus, Brisson]. 



The birds of this genus have several peculiarities, so much so as from 

 external appearance alone we should be induced to suppose them to be 

 only varieties of the same species. They may be ranked among the 

 waders and strikers, for which purposes they have long legs, as also a 

 long straight sharp-pointed bill, like a dagger. They have cuticular 

 glandular parts on the body, which have a short soft particular feather 

 covering them : they contain, or rather secrete, a mucus. There are 

 five parts of the bird on which they are placed, viz. on the upper and 

 outer part of each thigh, on the upper and inner side of the thigh ; and 

 the fifth is on the anterior part of the breast or on the clavicles, which 

 part is sometimes divided into two. The toes are long, and have con- 

 siderable motion in them. The inner edge of the nail of the middle 

 toe becomes thin and hollow on the under surface, and its edge is ser- 

 rated with the teeth pointing a little forwards. The use of this is not 

 easily ascertained ; if it was in the contrary direction, it might be sup- 

 posed to be for the purpose of holding their prey. Bitterns are 

 extremely thin in the body : they have long loose feathers, and can in 

 some degree raise those on the back of the head and upper part of the 

 neck. The neck is long, but in the common posture it appears short, 

 for they curve it very much, which curves are covered by the long 

 feathers. The tail is short, and when they fly they throw their legs 



1 [In a heron dissected by me I observed only the usual rudiments of a diaphragm, 

 less developed than in the apteryx. See art. Ayes, Cyclopeedia of Anatomy, vol. i. 

 p. 293.] 



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