Genus— B 0 T A U R U S . 
Botaurus Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. XI., 
pt. n., p. 592, 1819 . . . . . . . . . . Type B. stellaris. 
Butor Swainson, Classif. Birds, Vol. II., p. 354, 1837 Type B. stellaris. 
Ardeine birds with long stout bill, medium neck, long wings, short tail, 
medium legs with very long toes. 
The species of the present genus stand apart from all other Ardeine 
birds in their style of coloration, soft plumage, and very long toes with 
very long claws. 
The bill is typically ardeine, comparatively rather short and stout, 
the edges of the mandibles strongly serrated with anterior notch present. 
The culmen is much shorter than the metatarsus. The wing is long, with 
the second and tliird primaries subequal and longest, the first and fourth 
tittle shorter and subequal. The secondaries are elongated and almost 
equal the primaries in length. 
The tail is composed of ten feathers, soft and even, and about one- 
third the length of the wing. The legs are comparatively short, and the 
tibia but slightly exposed : the metatarsus is regularly scutellate in front 
and a little less than one-third the length of the wing. The toes are very 
long : the middle toe about equal to the metatarsus ; the inner toe is 
distinctly longer than the outer. The claws are very long. 
Two pairs of powder-down patches are present. 
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