606 G R E A T AMERICAN EGRET.
its claw 1ft,; ,'second „toe its claw. third toe its claw ft;
fourth tee 8f t , its claw. ft., Weight 2J lb..
Thé Female; is similar to the male, but somewhat smaller.
The roof of the mouth ist'sBghtly concave, ' with a median and two.
lateral ..longitudinal -ridges, the palate; convex, the:posteeior aperture of
thenar«* linear, without an anterior slit. The month is rather narrow,
measuring only S twelfths,across, but i s j^a t abl e to! l| inch, the.branches
" o i the lower mandible being -very, elastic. -. The, aperture,.of the ear
•is very .small, being 2 twelfths in diameter, and roundish. Thfe jqesopiagas
is 2 feet 2 inches long, 1 inch and 4 twelfths in diameter, extremely
thin, the. longitudinal fibres
.within the transverse,-.the';,inner, -
coat raised into numerous, longitudinal
ridges, xheïoesop'hagus cöä-*
tinues of uniform diameter, and
pasèes as it wére diïéfctly into the
stomach, there' being no" enlargement
at its termination" indicative
of thé provenfriculus, which however
exists, but in a modified form,
there being at the termination of
the gullet eight longitudinal series
of large mucous crypts, about half
an inch long, and immediately afterwards
a continuous belt, inch
in breadth, of small cylindrical
mucous crypts with minute apertures;
Beyond this the stomachforms
a hemispherical säe inch
in diameter, of a membranous structure,
having externally beneath the
cellular coat a layer of slender musc
«ar fibres, convex, towards two roundish t end«, and internally a
soft, thin, smooth lining, perforated by innumerable minute apertures
of glandules. / The intestine is very long and exfremely slender/measuring
¡ Â Î inches in length, its average diameter 2 twelfths. The
G R E A T AMERICAN EGRET. 607
rectum, b i f , is 3 inches long ; the cloaca, d e f , globular, inch in diameter;
the coecum, c, single, as in the other Herons, 3 twelfths long,
and nearly 2 twelfths in diameter.
The trachea is & foot inches long, of nearly uniform diameter,
flattened a little for about half its length, its greatest breadth 3£
twelfths ; the rings 285, the last four rings divided and arched. The
contractor muscles, are extremely thin, the sterno tracheal moderate,
and coming off at the distancé of 1 inch from the lower extremity,
from which place also there proceeds to the two last rings a pair of
slender inferior laryngeal museltSÏ The bronchi are very short, of
about two half rings.
" Tapayaxin.
The animal represented oij the plate is the Twpayascm of Hernanr
dez, Phrynmoma orbicularis.of Wiegmann, Tajiaya orbicularis of Cdvieb.
The sjpjsciinen from which it was drawn,was entrusted to my care by
my friend Rich ago Har lan, M. D., to whom it was-presented by Mr
N d t t a i l , who found it in California. A notice, respecting this species
by Dr Hari.ax will be found in the American Journal of Science
and Arts, vol. xxxi.