168 ARDEID. 
faciei area lorali et oculari nuda et rostro pallide carneis, hoc versus apicem nigro ; pedibus ultramarinis ; 
iride flavicante vel albida. Long. tota 27°5, ale 13:5, caude 4:4, culm. 40, tarsi 5:8. (Descr. maris 
adulti ex Punta Rassa, Florida. Mus. nostr.) 
2 mari similis, sed plumis ornamentalibus brevioribus. Long. tota 25°5, ale 11:8. (Descr. feminz adulte 
ex Punta Rassa. Mus. nostr.) 
Forma altera avis adulti pure alba, plumis ornamentalibus eodem modo decorata. 
Juv. adultis similis, sed pallidior, notei plumis rufescente marginatis; facie laterali et corpore subtus ferru- 
gineo lavatis ; plumis ornamentalibus nullis. 
Hab. Nortu America, Gulf States north to Southern Hlinois, Lower California '’.— 
Mexico, rivers and lakes of both coasts § !5, San Mateo ‘, Tehuantepec, Ventosa 1° 16 
(Sumichrast), Mazatlan (Grayson ®), Progreso, Yucatan (Schott°), Cozumel I. 
(Gaumer®®18); Guaremata, Chiapam (0. 8.414), Istan (0. S. °).— West INDIES, 
Cuba, Jamaica 1". 
This beautiful Heron, remarkable for its two distinct phases of rufous and white 
plumage, has, on this account, been separated as two species, the one rufous (Ardea 
rufa) and the other pure white (A. pealei). ‘There can be no doubt, however, that the 
latter is only a white phase of the former, as they both assume similar ornamental 
plumes in the breeding-season. 
Audubon considered that the white birds were the young of the rufous form, but, 
as Dr. Bowdler Sharpe? has pointed out, this cannot be the case, as our series from 
Texas shows them both in perfect breeding-plumage, with all the ornamental feathers 
fully developed. It has been further stated by Professor Ridgway that young birds, both 
white and rufous, have been found in the same nest, when the parent birds have been 
both rufous, or both white, or one rufous and the other white: so that neither age, 
sex, nor season has anything to do with the difference in colour between the two 
phases of plumage, which, at first sight, seems to indicate.the existence of two distinct 
species. The same author states that sometimes reddish specimens with an admixture 
of white are found. We ourselves procured such an example at Chiapam in Guatemala, 
and there are others in the British Museum. 
This species inhabits the Gulf States of North America during the summer, ranging 
as far north as Southern Illinois. It is also found in Lower California, and on 
both coasts of Mexico, being resident at Mazatlan, where, however, according to 
Grayson, it is not very abundant. In Guatemala, where the bird is probably only a 
winter visitant, we met with it on the muddy flats surrounding the salt-pools at 
Chiapam, the reddish form decidedly predominating in point of numbers. 
Mr. Underwood does not include it in the list he sent us of the birds of Costa 
Rica. 
In habits this Heron resembles others of its race, but seems to be more exclusively 
a salt-water loving species, frequenting principally the shallow flats near the sea. The 
food consists of small fishes and frogs, insects, &c., but, according to Mr. N. B. Moore’s 
