56 
GREAT HERON. 
mage of the males and females ; the latter were rather less, 
and the long pointed plumes of the back were not quite so 
abundant. 
The young birds of the first year have the whole upper part 
of the head of a dark slate ; w^ant the long plumes of the breast 
and back ; and have the body, neck, and lesser coverts of the 
wings, considerably tinged with ferruginous. 
On dissection, the gullet was found of great width, from the 
mouth to the stomach, which has not the two strong muscular 
>coats that form the gizzard of some birds ; it was more loose, 
of considerable and uniform thickness throughout, and capable 
of containing nearly a pint. It was entirely filled with fish, 
among which were some small eels, all placed head down- 
wards; the intestines measured nine feet in length, were 
scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being dis- 
tended ; so that the vulgar story of the heron swallowing eels, 
which, passing suddenly through him, are repeatedly swal- 
lowed, is absurd and impossible. On the external coat of the 
stomach of one of these birds, opened soon after being shot, 
something like a blood-vessel lay in several meandering folds, 
enveloped in a membrane, and closely adhering to the surface. 
On carefully opening this membrane, it was found to contain a 
large, round, living worm, eight inches in length ; another, of 
like length, was found coiled, in the same manner, on another 
part of the external coat. It may also be worthy of notice, 
that the intestines of the young birds of the first season, killed 
in the month of October, when they were nearly as large as the 
others, measured only six feet four or five inches ; those of the 
full-grown ones, from eight to nine feet in length. 
