On the upper mandible internally are three series of minute papillæ which become larger on the palate. While the upper mandible is flat beneath, the lower is deeply concave, and its crura elastic and capable of being separated near the base to the distance of three-fourths of an inch. The tongue, which is 2 1/4 inches long, and of a slender form, carinate beneath, with the tip pointed, lies in the deep hollow of the lower mandible, and being deeply concave above, leaves a vacant space, by which, when the bill is immersed in the mud and the tips separated, the food-passes along. The œsophagus is 4 3/4 inches long, 1/4 inch in diameter, and nearly uniform. The proventriculus, a, b, c, is bulbiform, its diameter 6 twelfths. The stomach, c, d, e, f, is an oblong gizzard of moderate strength, with the lateral and inferior muscles decided, the tendons large, its length 1 inch, its breadth 8 twelfths. The epithelium is dense, tough, with numerous longitudinal rugæ, and of a reddish colour. The contents of the stomach were very small hard hemispherical seeds and vegetable fibres. The intestine, f, g, h, 19 1/2 inches long, its diameter 3 twelfths in its upper part; the cœca 1 3/4 inch long, and from 1 to 2 twelfths in diameter, with the extremity obtuse.
The trachea is wide, flattened, 3 1/2 inches long, 2 3/4 twelfths broad at the top, gradually diminishing to 2 twelfths; the rings about 130. The contractor muscles are very thin, the sterno-tracheal slender; and there is a pair of inferior laryngeal. The bronchial half rings are about 25.
YELLOW-CROWNED HERON.
Ardea violacea, Linn.
PLATE CCCXXXVI. Adult and Young.
The Yellow-crowned Heron, which is one of the handsomest species of its tribe, is called “Cap-cap” by the Creoles of Lower Louisiana, in which country it is watched and shot with great eagerness, on account of the excellence of its flesh. It arrives about New Orleans toward the end of March, and departs in the middle of October. On arriving, they throw themselves among the thickets along the bayous, where they breed. Like the Night Heron, this species may be enticed near by imitating its cries, when it approaches, cutting many curious zigzags in the air, and alights close by. It is a curious circumstance that when passing over several gunners placed on the watch for them, they dive toward the ground if shot at and missed, and this they do several times in succession, according to the number of shots. It is in the evening and at dawn that they are chiefly obtained. They are said not to travel in boisterous weather, or when there is thunder; and I have heard the same stated with regard to the Night Heron.
In some parts of the Southern States, this species is quite abundant, while in the intermediate tracts it is seldom or never met with. Thus, in the Floridas, I found great numbers on a bayou near Halifax River, but afterwards saw none until I reached one of the keys, more than two hundred miles distant, and farther south, where it was breeding in society. The first of these flocks I saw in winter, the other on the 22d of May. Again, while proceeding toward the Texas, we saw a few on an island in Bay Blanche, but met with none afterwards until we reached Galveston Island, where they were plentiful. They seldom advance eastward far beyond North Carolina, and I am not aware of any having been seen farther than New Jersey. On the other hand, they are not generally found on the Mississippi beyond Natchez, although stragglers may sometimes be seen farther up.
This species is by no means entirely nocturnal, for I have seen it searching for food among the roots of mangroves at all hours of the day, and that as assiduously as any diurnal bird, following the margins of rivers, and seizing on both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Whilst at Galveston, I frequently saw a large flock similarly occupied. When they had satisfied their hunger, they would quietly remove to some safe distance toward the middle of an island, where, standing in a crouching posture on the ground, they presented a very singular appearance. That they are able to see to a considerable distance on fine clear nights, I have no doubt, as I am confident that their migratory movements are usually performed at such times, having seen them, as well as several other species, come down from a considerable height in the air, after sun-rise, for the purpose of resting and procuring food.
The flight of the Yellow-crowned Heron is rather slow, and less protracted than that of the Night Heron, which it however somewhat resembles. When in numbers, and surprised on their perches, they usually rise almost perpendicularly for thirty or forty yards, and then take a particular direction, leading them to some well-known place. Whenever I have started them from the nest, especially on the Florida Keys, they would sneak off on wing quite low, under cover of the mangroves, and fly in this manner until they had performed the circuit of the island, when they would alight close to me, as if to see whether I had taken their eggs or young.
When on the ground, they exhibit little of the elegance displayed by the Louisiana, the Reddish, the Blue, or the White Herons; they advance with a less sedate pace, and seldom extend their neck much even when about to seize their food, which they appear to do with little concern, picking it up from the ground in the manner of a domestic fowl. Nor are they at all delicate in the choice of their viands, but swallow snails, fish, small snakes, crabs, crays, lizards, and leeches, as well as small quadrupeds, and young birds that have fallen from their nests. One which was killed by my friend Edward Harris, Esq., on the 19th of April 1837, on an island in the Bay of Terre Blanche, about 4 o’clock in the evening, was, when opened next morning, found to have swallowed a terrapin, measuring about an inch and a half in length, by one in breadth. It was still alive, and greatly surprised my companions as well as myself by crawling about when liberated.