GREAT AMERICAN WHITE EGRET. 
137 
Space between the bill and eye, and around the latter, bare. Plumage 
soft, blended ; the feathers oblong, with their filaments generally disunited, 
unless on the wings and tail. There is no crest on the head, but the feathers 
on its upper and hind part are slightly elongated ; those on the lower part 
of the neck anteriorly are elongated ; and from between the scapula; arises 
a tuft of extremely long, slightly decurved feathers, which extend about 
ten inches beyond the end of the tail, and have the shaft slightly undulated, 
the filaments long and distant. The wing is of moderate length ; the pri 
maries tapering but rounded, the second and third longest, the first slightly 
shorter than the fourth ; the secondaries broad and rounded, some of the 
inner as long as the longest primaries, when the wing is closed. Tail very 
short, small, slightly rounded, of twelve rather w'eak feathers. 
Bill bright yellow, as is the bare space between it and the eye ; iris pale 
yellow ; feet and claws black. The plumage is pure white. 
Length to end of tail 37 inches, to end of claws 49, to end of wings 57i, 
to carpus 234, to end of dorsal plumes 57 ; bill along the ridge along 
the edge of lower mandible 5/ 2 - ; wing from flexure 1 6h ; tail 6^ ; extent 
of wings 55 ; bare part of tibia 3J ; tarsus 6 r V ; hind toe 14, its claw lf^ ; 
second toe 2 T %, its claw T 7 2 ; third toe 3H, its claw rV ; fourth toe 3/^, its 
claw Weight 2i lbs. 
The Female is similar to the male, but somewhat smaller. 
The roof of the mouth is slightly concave, with a median and two lateral 
longitudinal ridges, the palate convex, the posterior aperture of the nares 
linear, without an anterior slit. The mouth is rather narrow, measuring 
only 8 twelfths across, but is dilatable to U inches, the branches of the 
lower mandible being very elastic. The aperture of the ear is very small, 
being 2 twelfths in diameter, and roundish. The oesophagus is 2 feet 2 
inches long, 1 inch and 4 twelfths in diameter, extremely thin, the longitu- 
dinal fibres within the transverse, the inner coat raised into numerous lonad- 
tudinal ridges. The oesophagus continues of uniform diameter, and passes 
as it were directly into the stomach, there being no enlargement at its termi- 
nation indicative of the proventriculus, which however exists, but in a 
modified form, there being at the termination of the gullet eight longitu- 
dinal series of large mucous crypts, about half an inch long, and immediately 
afterwards a continuous belt, 1£ inches in breadth, of small cylindrical 
mucous crypts with minute apertures. Beyond this the stomach forms a 
hemispherical sac 14 inches in diameter, of a membranous structure, bavin"- 
externally beneath the cellular coat a layer of slender muscular fibres, 
con -vex towards two roundish tendons, and internally a soft, thin, smooth 
lining, perforated by innumerable minute apertures of glandules. The 
Vol. VI. 19 
