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SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 
The specimen figured was a female, killed on the fifth of 
February by Mr. Titian Peale, at Key Tavernier, on the Florida 
reef. Mr. Peale took it for the much disputed Crying Bird of 
Bartram. Mr. Peale saw no other individual, but that we have 
described was brought by Mr. F. Cozzens from Florida: one or 
two killed on the coast of New Jersey near Long Branch may 
be seen in the American Museum at New York. Mr. Peale did 
not hear the bird utter any sound; it was very unwilling to fly, 
and caused him some trouble to make it rise from the thick 
mangroves and other bushes where it kept. It appears to inhabit 
the low shores and swamps of the rivers and lakes of Florida, 
and perhaps Georgia, being merely a straggler north of this. 
Even there we must conclude it to be rather a scarce species, as 
Mr. Peale could never get information about it, and even upon 
showing it to the most experienced sportsmen, they declared 
themselves unacquainted with it, except a few who called it 
Indian Hen, as they probably would any other rare bird of its 
size. It runs through the grass exactly in the manner of the 
Rails, compressing its narrow body to pass through a small hole, 
and very difficult to catch when wounded. 
The Scolopaceous Courlan is two feet and three-fourths of an 
inch long, and three feet eight inches in extent. The bill, which 
has but a small gape, and by no means extending like that of the 
Herons to beneath the eyes, measures four and three-quarter 
inches in length : of course it is longer than the head, and may 
be called much lengthened; it is slender, quite straight, much 
compressed, being more than thrice higher than broad, and of a 
corneous consistence: the upper mandible is of equal height 
almost throughout, slender, from the base to the middle it is 
compressed, and channelled each side with a deep furrow covered 
by a kind of cere-like membrane; from where the furrow ends it 
swells slightly on each side, being there quite smooth, and even 
