4S^ The Hiftory 0 / ANIMALS, 
/ \ 
BIRDS. 
: v(f 
67^/y the Fourth . 
SCOLOPACES, 
T H £ characters of the Scolopaces are, that the beak is of a cylindric figure, 
rounded and obtufe* and the legs are often naked about the middle of the 
thigh. 
ARDEA. 
T tt E beak of the Ardea is very long, and fomewhat compreffed: the uppef and 
under chaps of it are both of a length, and there runs a furrow from the hoftril: 
the legs are very long: the toes are four, and thefe alfo are long and connected. 
Ardea vertke papillofo, 
‘The Ardea> with the top of the head papillofe . 3Ef)C Ct<Ut£* 
This is a very large, ftately, and beautiful bird: it’s body is not very bulky, howe¬ 
ver, in proportion to the length of the neck and of the legs; it's general weight is 
about eleven pounds, and if meafured in an extended pofture, from the tip of the 
beak to the extremities of the toes, it is more than five feet in length. 
V 
The head is moderately large; it is rounded and prominent on the crown, and 
fomewhat, though but little, compreffed at the fides: the eyes are large'and piercing; 
the beak is long, ftraight, fharp at the point, and fomewhat compreffed at the lides: 
it’s colour is a blackifh-green ; the tongue is broad, and is of a firm and, as it were, 
horny ftru&ure at the extremity : the crown of the head is black } this colour extends 
from the front of the head, at the origin of the beak, to the hinder part, and all this 
is covered rather with fhort hairs than feathers: in the hinder part of the head there 
is a fmall fpace of a lunulated figure which is naked, of a fcarlet colour, and of a 
granulated furface ; and below this there ftand fome grey feathers, which form a tri¬ 
angular fpot on the neck ; at it’s top, on the upper or hinder part from each eye, 
there runs alfo a fine white line, which continues it’s courfe ftraight backward ; thefe 
join the triangular grey fpot already mentioned, juft below the hinder part of the head, 
and are continued from thence again, quite down to the breaft: the throat and the 
fides of the neck are of a dufky blackifli colour : the back, fhoulders, breaft, belly, 
and thighs, and the covering feathers of the wings, excepting only thofe on the ex- 
tream joint, are grey. 
The wings are very large; the long feathers in each are twenty-four in number, 
and they are black, only the fmaller ones have fomething of a reddifh-brown tinge in the 
black, as have alfo the primary covering feathers on the extream joint: the tail is fmall 
and fhort, and is compofed of twelve feathers: when it is expanded, it is round 5 the 
feathers which compofe it are grey, but their tips or extremities are black. 
The legs are extreamly long, and they are naked to at leaft a hand’s-breadth above 
the joint, commonly called the knee : they are black; the toes alfo are black, and are 
very remarkably long: the outer toe of each foot is connected to the joint of the 
middle one, by a very tough and ftrong membrane. 
There is fomething very fingular in the wind-pipe of this bird ; it enters the fter- 
num by an aperture, formed for that purpole, and after penetrating deep into it, and 
making 
