PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 489 
angle is extended beyond the middle of the mandible, is exceed- 
ingly narrow, very acute, and feathered : the lora are naked, as 
well as a portion of the orbits. The nostrils, not quite basal, 
are placed in the furrow, and are linear, longitudinal, pervious, 
and above half closed by a naked membrane. The tongue is 
half the length of the bill, acute, very entire, narrow, mem- 
branous, and rather flattened. The body is much compressed. 
The feet are equilibrate, long, and four-toed: the tarsus is 
always longer than the middle toe, sometimes barely so, some- 
times a great deal: in some species the tibia is almost entirely 
naked, whilst in others it is on the contrary nearly all feathered : 
the toes are elongated, slender, narrowly bordered by a mem- 
brane, all unequal; the middle is connected to the outer one 
by a membrane that extends to the end of the first joint; the 
inner toe, a little shorter than the outer, is merely furnished 
with a very minute basal membrane: the hind toe is long, 
half equal to the middle one, and all bearing on the ground, 
being inserted opposite to the inner toe: the nails are com- 
pressed, falcate, the hind one largest: the middle one is dilated 
on the inside into a pectinated sharp edge. The coverings 
of the tarsi are transversely clypeate, the upper and lower 
clypei being scutelliform, the opisotarsus and knee are covered 
with small hexagonal scales ; the toes are scutellated. These 
various forms of the scales are represented with inimitable 
accuracy by Mr Lawson in the plate of Peale’s egret. The 
wings are broad, obtuse, tuberculated, the three outer primaries 
being longest, and the third hardly shorter than the two first- 
The tail is short and obtuse, and composed of ten or twelve 
feathers. The feathers \of the lower neck before in the adult 
bird are pendulous, elongated, mostly acuminate, narrow, or 
ragged; on the occiput and back they are in many species 
elongated sericeous, either linear, or laciniate-lacerated, seldom 
dense, oblong or rounded at the end; the neck is bare at base 
on the sides, but concealed by a tuft of longish plumes origin- 
ating at the shoulders: the neck-feathers in some species are 
short and closely pressed to the body ; in others they are softer, 
