116 
SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 
scutella, the anterior with large angulose scales; the tarsus behind 
has a double longitudinal series of knobs, before it is covered 
with oblique scutella; the cnemidia, that is, the lower part of 
the naked tibia, are squamulose; the toes scutulate, and warty 
beneath : the nails are moderate, arcuated, acute; the hind nail 
is rather the smallest: the middle is the largest, and dilates 
internally into a sharp edge, perfectly entire, and by no means 
pectinated, any opinions or statements to the contrary notwith¬ 
standing. 
The body is compressed, but fleshy: the neck cylindrical and 
slender: the face and lora entirely feathered. When it is stated 
that some specimens have these parts bare, it is because the other 
Guarauna, which is an Ibis, has been confounded with it. The 
tail is moderate, scarcely six inches long, plane, broad, rounded, 
and composed of twelve broad feathers. 
The wings are twelve and a half inches long, ample, and 
rounded-obtuse: the first quill is moderately long, and equal with 
s, < ' 
the eighth, and by more than two inches shorter than the second, 
which is equal to the sixth : it is peculiarly shaped, narrower at 
base than at tip, where it is very blunt: the third is the longest 
of all, being however but little longer than the fourth. 
The feathers of the neck are short, and rather narrow: those 
of the body and wing-coverts are rounded on their margins, and 
soft and dense, the inferior are somewhat loose on their borders. 
There is no naked place on the sides of the breast, as in the 
Herons. The general colour of the Courlan is a deep chocolate 
brown, or fuscous sooty hue, reigning all over the bird: the 
feathers are however paler on their margins, and there is on each 
from the base along the middle, including the shaft, with the 
exception of the tip, a large, broad lanceolate, pure white spot. 
(In the Ibis Guarauna, the white occupies the margin instead 
of the middle of the feathers.) This white spot is larger in 
