SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 
115 
appearing polished : there is no vestige of a notch, as in the 
Herons, and the margins are perfectly entire: these margins from 
the middle to the angle of the mouth are revolute inside and 
obtuse, towards the tip they are nearly vertical and acute, 
forming throughout inside a straight medial channel; the upper 
ridge is somewhat depressed at base, then slightly inclined to the 
tip, being obtuse, and no where sharp: the lower mandible at base 
and beyond the middle is of nearly equal height, straightish in 
the middle; on the sides at base it is covered by a very thin 
membrane, and slightly furrowed lengthwise ; from the middle 
to the point it is as smooth and polished as the upper one, 
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excessively compressed, with the ridge prominent, rather acute at 
tip, the margins are perpendicular, approximated, very entire; the 
bifurcation of the sides is very long, extending beyond the middle 
of the mandible ; it is narrow, and the mental angle formed by it 
naked, acute, entering the corneous substance of the bill. The 
nostrils are placed rather distant from the base, and in the lateral 
furrow, they are entirely perforated, longitudinal, and somewhat 
elliptical: the tongue is elastic, narrow, and acute. The bill is 
yellow at base, and of a corneous blue-black at tip: the eyelids 
are yellow, the iris brown : the legs pale lead-colour, and the 
nails black. 
The feet are elongated, and much of the tibia naked, the bare 
space measuring three inches : the tarsus, four and a half inches 
long, much exceeds the middle toe : the four toes are slender, all 
cleft from the base, long, unequal, and compressed ; the inner is 
a little shorter than the outer, the middle longest, measuring three 
inches without the nail; the hind toe is rather more than one 
inch, and slender: it is inserted in an unusual manner, opposite 
to the base of the inner toe, but much higher, and with only the 
last joint, which is very short, resting on the ground. The 
unfeathered part of the tibia is covered behind with transverse 
