no 
THE GREAT WHITE HERON - . 
of oblong glandules. There is a small roundish pyloric lobe, e. Intestine, 
f g, 2 feet 11 inches long, its diameter uniform, 1 twelfth, or about the 
thickness of a crow’s quill. Rectum enlarged to 3 twelfths, and 3? inches 
long, its coecal extremity rounded, and only 1 twelfth long. 
The trachea is Tl inches long, of nearly uniform diameter, averaging 2 
twelfths ; the rings 160, nearly circular and ossified. The bronchial half- 
rings about 18. The lateral muscles are very inconspicuous ; sterno- 
tracheals, and a pair of inferior laryngeal, going to the first bronchial rings. 
The Herons generally differ from the other G-rallm in having the oeso- 
phagus much wider, and similar to that of the fish-eating palmipedes ; the 
stomach in a manner membranous, like that of the rapacious land-birds, 
without lateral muscles or strong epithelium ; the intestine extremely slen- 
der, and the anterior extremity of the large intestine or rectum furnished 
with a single coecum, in place of two; as in almost all other birds. 
THE GREAT WHITE HERON. 
Ardea occidentalis, Aud. 
PLATE OOOLXYIH.— Male. 
I am now about to present you with an account of the habits of the 
largest species of the Heron tribe hitherto found in the United States, and 
which is indeed remarkable not only for its great size, but also for the 
pure white of its plumage at every period of its life. Writers who have 
subdivided the family, and stated that none of the true Herons are white, 
will doubtless be startled when they, for the first time, look at my plate 
of this bird. I think, however, that our endeavours to discover the natu- 
ral arrangement of things cannot be uniformly successful, and it is clear 
that he only who has studied all can have much chance of disposing all 
according to their relations. 
On the 24th of April, 1832, I landed on Indian Key in Florida, and 
immediately after formed an acquaintance with Mr. Egan. He it was who 
first gave me notice of the species which forms the subject of this article, 
and of which I cannot find any description. The next day after that of my 
