THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 
131 
wings 12 ; bill M, gape 7rV; tarsus 6J, middle toe and claw 5, hind toe' and 
claw 2 i, naked part of tibia 4; wings from flexure 20 ; tail 7. 
The Female, when in full plumage, is precisely similar to the male. 
On Prince Edward’s Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a fine 
breeding-place of the Great Blue Heron, which is probably the most northern 
on the Atlantic coast of North America. The birds there are more shy 
than they usually are at the period of breeding, and in the most cowardly 
manner abandon their young to the mercy of every intruder. A friend of 
mine who visited this place for the purpose of procuring adult birds in thei. 
best plumage, to add to his already extensive collection, found it extremely 
difficult to obtain his object, until he at length thought of covering himself 
with the hide of an ox, under the disguise of which he readily got within 
shot of the birds, which were completely deceived by the stratagem. 
Adult Male. The interior of the mouth is similar to that of the last 
species, there being three longitudinal ridges on the upper mandible ; its 
width is 11 inches, but the lower mandible can be dilated to 21 inches. The 
tongue is 3J inches long, trigonal, and in all respects similar to that of Ardea 
Occident alls. The oesophagus is 24 inches in length, opposite the larynx its 
width is 24 inches, it then gradually contracts to the distance of 7 inches, 
becomes 1 inch 10 twelfths in width, and so continues until it enters the 
thorax, when it enlarges to 2 inches and so continues, but at the proventri- 
culus is 2s inches in breadth. The stomach is roundish, a little compressed, 
2£ inches in diameter ; its muscular coat thin, and composed of a single series 
of fasciculi, its inner coat soft and smooth, but with numerous irregular 
ridges. There is a roundish pyloric lobe, 9 twelfths in diameter. The pro- 
ventricular glands form a belt 1 inch 4 twelfths in width ; at its upper part 
are 10 longitudinal irregular series of very large mucous crypts ; the right 
lobe of the liver is 3 inches in length, the left 2 inches ; there is a gall- 
bladder of a curved form, 11 inches in length, and 6 twelfths in its greatest 
breadth. The intestine is 7 feet 71 inches in length ; its greatest width, in 
the duodenum, is 3£ twelfths, at the distance of 3 feet, it is 24 twelfths ; a 
foot and a half farther on it is scarcely 21 twelfths ; and half a foot from 
the rectum it is 2 twelfths ; it then slightly enlarges. The rectum, includ- 
ing the cloaca, is 5 inches 9 twelfths in length ; there is a single coecuin, 5 
twelfths long, and 21 twelfths in width, the average width of the rectum 
is i inch, and it expands into a globular cloaca 2 inches 2 twelfths in 
diameter. The duodenum curves at the distance of 5 inches, then passes to 
the right lobe of the liver, bends backward, and is convoluted, forming 22 
turns, terminating in the rectum above the stomach. 
The trachea is 21 inches in length, from 4§ twelfths to 3 twelfths in 
