Page:The birds of America, Volume 6.djvu/177

THE GREAT BLUE HERON. wings 72; bill 5, gape 7 T %; tarsus 6j, middle toe and claw 5, hind toe and claw 2k, naked part of tibia 4; wings from flexure 20; tail 7. The Female, when in full plumage, is precisely similar to the male. On Prince Edward's Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a fine breeding-place of the Great Blue Heron, which is probably the most northern on the Atlantic coast of North America. The birds there are more shy than they usually are at the period of breeding, and in the most cowardly manner abandon their young to the mercy of every intruder. A friend of mine who visited this place for the purpose of procuring adult birds in their best plumage, to add to his already extensive collection, found it extremely difficult to obtain his object, until he at length thought of covering himself with the hide of an ox, under the disguise of which he readily got within shot of the birds, which were completely deceived by the stratagem. Adult Male. The interior of the mouth is similar to that of the last species, there being three longitudinal ridges on the upper mandible; its width is !■% inches, but the lower mandible can be dilated to 2 inches. The tongue is 3| inches long, trigonal, and in all respects similar to that of JLrdea occidentalis. The oesophagus is 24 inches in length, opposite the larynx its width is 2 inches, it then gradually contracts to the distance of 7 inches, becomes 1 inch 10 twelfths in width, and so continues until it enters the thorax, when it enlarges to 2 inches and so continues, but at the proventri- culus is 2^ inches in breadth. The stomach is roundish, a little compressed, 2 inches in diameter; its muscular coat thin, and composed of a single series of fasciculi, its inner coat soft and smooth, but with numerous irregular ridges. There is a roundish pyloric lobe, 9 twelfths in diameter. The pro- ventricular glands form a belt 1 inch 4 twelfths in width; at its upper part are 10 longitudinal irregular series of very large mucous crypts; the right lobe of the liver is 3 inches in length, the left 2 inches; there is a gall- bladder of a curved form, inches in length, and 6 twelfths in its greatest breadth. The intestine is 7 feet 1 inches in length; its greatest width, in the duodenum, is 3j twelfths, at the distance of 3 feet, it is 2 twelfths; a foot and a half farther on it is scarcely 2 twelfths; and half a foot from the rectum it is 2 twelfths; it then slightly enlarges. The rectum, including the cloaca, is 5 inches 9 twelfths in length; there is a single ccecum, 5 twelfths long, and 2 twelfths in width, the average width of the rectum is inch, and it expands into a globular cloaca 2 inches 2 twelfths in diameter. The duodenum curves at the distance of 5 inches, then passes to the right lobe of the liver, bends backward, and is convoluted, forming 22 turns, terminating in the rectum above the stomach. The trachea is 21 inches in length, from A twelfths to 3 twelfths in