112 



of Ardea, and is far removed from that of Botaurus. The tibia is big and 

 short ; it surpasses in length the tarso-metatarsus by about a third, as is usual 

 in the Herons ; but the femur on the contrary is strongly developed, being 

 quite as large as in the Ardea cinerea ; which shows us that the body of this 

 creature was of large size, and that the reduction in size of the feet had only 

 taken place at their extremities. 



The sternum is puny and small as compared with the creature's size. 

 It is clearly that of a bird not furnished with powerful wings, and is even 

 much less elongated than in the Bittern, but the coracoidal bones are very 

 long and slender. The wings also were short and feeble, the humerus being 

 hardly as big as in Butorides atricapilla. It is conspicuously slenderer and 

 shorter than in the Bittern. The main body of the bone is slightly curved 

 on the outside, and the lower articular condyle is large and flattened. I have 

 not been able to examine any bone of the " manus," but the metacarpal bone 

 shows exactly the same proportions for the wing as does the humerus, as it 

 also barely reaches the size of that of Butorides atricapilla. The measurements 

 are as follows : — 



Skull. 



Total length 154 



Length of upper mandible .... 94 



Width of upper mandible at base .... .... 22 



Width of interorbital region .... .... .... 22 



Space between the mastoid apophyses .... .... 40 



Width of skull at level of postorbital apophyses 40 



Length of lower mandible 147 



mm. 



Tarso-metatarsus 



Total length 



Width at proximal extremity 

 Width at distal extremity.... 



95—162 



mm. 



14 



0135—14 



Width of shaft 



0062—7 



Tibio-tarsus. 



Total length 



Width at distal extremity 

 Width at proximal extremity 

 Width of shaft 



140—210 



mm. 



12—13 



13—14 



6—0065 



