156 
LOUISIANA HEKON. 
proventriculus is 1 inch long, its glandules cylindrical, and extremely 
slender. The stomach seems as if it merely formed a basal sac to the 
oesophagus, its muscles being extremely thin, its tendons circular and half an 
inch in diameter ; cuticular lining soft. The intestine is long and very nar- 
row, 5 feet 10 inches in length, 2 lines in diameter at the upper part, li near 
the rectum, which is 2f inches long, with a diameter of 41 lines, and termi- 
nates in a nipple-like coecum, projecting 3 lines beyond the entrance of the 
small intestine, but having no appearance of the two lateral appendages 
usually called coeca. In this respect, the Blue Heron agrees with others of 
the same family. The cloaca is about an inch in length and breadth. 
The trachea, when extended, is 8f inches long. The rings 170 in number, 
are osseous and circular, so that the organ preserves its cylindrical form 
under all circumstances. They are, like those of all Herons, of equal 
breadth on both sides, not broad on one side and narrow on the other, as has 
been represented. The contractor muscles are very slender, as are the 
sterno-tracheal ; the former send down a slip on each side to the first bron- 
chial lfing. The diameter of the trachea is 2 lines at the upper part, at 
X 
the lower. The bronchi are short, wide, conical, of about 13 half rings. 
The right lobe of the liver is 2i inches long, the left lobe II ; the heart 1£ 
in length, 8 lines broad, of an oblong conical form. The stomach contained 
remains of insects and crustaceous animals, together with a few seeds. 
LOUISIANA HERON. . 
Ardea Ludoviciana, Wils. 
PLATE CCCLXXIIL— Male. 
Delicate in form, beautiful in plumage, and graceful in its movements, I 
never see this interesting Heron, without calling it the Lady of the Waters. 
Watch its motions, as it leisurely walks over the pure sand beaches of the 
coast of Florida, arrayed in the full beauty of its spring plumage. Its pen- 
dent crest exhibits its glossy tints, its train falls gracefully over a well 
defined tail, and the tempered hues of its back and wings contrast with those 
of its lower parts. Its measured steps are so light that they leave no 
