Genus — R D E A . 
Abdea Linne, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p. 141, 1758 . . . . Type A. cinerea. 
Ardeeste birds with long, straight bills, long necks, long wings and tail, and 
very long legs. 
The bill is much longer than the head, sharp-pointed, deep, and laterally 
compressed ; edges of upper mandible serrated towards tip where a small 
notch can be observed. The nostrils appear as linear slits placed near the 
base of the bill at about half the depth of the upper mandible : they are 
placed in a depression which soon becomes obsolete ; below the nostrils, the 
upper mandible is slightly expanded. 
The sides of the lower mandible are marked by a long shallow depression ; 
the gonydeal angle is marked as an obtuse angle. The culmen is less than 
one-third the length of the wing and decidedly shorter than the tarsus. The 
head is crested, while the loreal region is denuded of feathers ; the feathers of 
the back are not developed into a train, while the fore-neck feathers, though 
long, do not disintegrate. 
The wing is long : the first five feathers almost of equal length, the third 
longest, the second and fourth a little shorter, the first and fifth nearly 
equalling these, the first being longer than the fifth ; the first primary is 
strongly notched on the inner web, the second and third also showhig 
distinct notching ; the wing is more than twice the length of the tail 
and about three times the metatarsal length. 
The tail is square and composed of twelve feathers, and longer than the 
culmen and also the metatarsus. 
The legs are very long, a very long exposed tibia being present ; the 
covering is scutellate plates in front and hexagonal plates behind ; the 
frontal covering however generally appears more as irregular reticulation, 
the transverse plates showing a strong tendency to break up. In the juveniles 
the plates are perfectly seen. The toes are long ; a long hind-toe is present 
which is on the same plane as the other toes ; between the outer and middle 
toe a basal web is developed, but this is obsolete between the middle and 
inner toe. The middle-claw bears pectinations. 
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