94 
AMERICAN BITTERN. 
with an oblique papillate flap on each side ; the lower mandible deeply 
concave. The tongue is of moderate length, measuring II inches, emar- 
ginate at the base, trigonal, flat above, tapering to a point. The oesophagus, 
which is 12 inches long, gradually diminishes in diameter from 1 h inches 
to 1 inch. The proventriculus is 1 h inches long, its glandules cylindrical, 
forming a complete belt, the largest 3 twelfths long. The stomach is 
roundish, 2 inches in diameter, compressed ; its muscular coat thin, and 
composed of large fasciculi : its tendinous spaces nearly 1 inch in diameter ; 
its inner coat even, soft, and destitute of epithelium. There is a small 
roundish pyloric lobe, 4 twelfths in diameter ; the aperture of the pylorus is 
„xtremely small, having a diameter of only half a twelfth. The intestine is 
long and very slender, 6 feet 3 inches in length, its diameter at the upper 
part 3 twelfths, diminishing to 2i twelfths, for about a foot from the 
extremity enlarged to 5 eighths ; the rectum 61 inches long ; the cceeum 5 
twelfths long, 14 twelfths in diameter at the base, tapering to 1 twelfth, the 
extremity rounded. The stomach contained fragments of Crustacea. 
The trachea is 8i inches long, cylindrical ; the rings 154, and ossified ; its 
diameter at the top twelfths, diminishing in the space of an inch and a 
half to 3 twelfths, and so continuing nearly to the end, when it contracts to 
2 h twelfths. The last rings are much extended, and divided into two 
portions, the last transverse half ring arched, and 5 twelfths in length. The 
bronchi are in consequence very wide at the top, gradually taper, and are 
composed of about 25 half rings. The contractor muscles are very feeble ; 
the sterno-tracheal slender ; a pair of inferior laryngeal muscles inserted 
into the first bronchial ring. 
AMERICAN BITTERN. 
Ardea Lentiginosa, Swains. 
PLATE CCCLSY. — Male and Female. 
It never was my fortune to have a good opportunity of observing all the 
habits of this very remarkable bird, which, in many respects, differs from 
most other Herons. It is a winter resident in the Peninsula of the Floridas, 
as w r ell as many of the keys or islets which border its shores. But the 
