ARDElDiE — THE HERONS — ARDEA. 9 



species. Four reached Charleston alive, and were kept some time by Dr. Bachman, 

 Dr. Gibbes, and Dr. Wilson, These proved to be troublesome pets, devouring such 

 quantities of fish that it was difficult to provide for them. They would strike at 

 and kill chickens, ducks, and grown fowl, and in one instance stabbed through and 

 pinned to the wooden steps of the veranda a sleeping cat. They even pursued 

 and threatened the children ; and it became necessary to destroy them. 



Dr. Bryant met with this Heron in Florida in only two places. One of these was 

 on the headwaters of the St. Sebastian, where it was breeding in company with the 

 Wood Ibis ; the other was on a small island in Lake Jessup, without any other 

 birds. The attachment of this species to its breeding-place was strikingly shown 

 at this island. About a month before Dr. Bryant's visit a dense tangled growth 

 of coarse marsh grasses and bushes, with which it was covered, had been acci- 

 dentally set on fire, and many of the birds and the majority of the nests destroyed. 

 At the time of his visit the latter had been rebuilt, and the birds were again sit- 

 ting on their eggs. In the few nests which had not been destroyed, and in most 

 instances had been blackened by the fire, the young were already hatched and nearly 

 half grown. He found it breeding on many of the Keys. Two nests were rarely 

 seen near each other, and only in one instance did he find tAvo within twenty feet of 

 one another. They did not seem to object to the company of other species, as he 

 found one on the same bush with a nest of a Great Blue Heron ; and at Sandy Key, 

 near Cape Sable, he found several pairs breeding on the cacti, which were growing 

 amidst trees covered with the nests of the Louisiana Heron. He never saw more 

 than five or six individuals feeding near each other, and regarded it as much more 

 solitary than the herodias, as the latter is than other species, and as by far the wildest 

 bird of its genus with which he was acquainted. As he found many of its young 

 nearly fledged by the 20th of April, and as at that time none at the Keys were less 

 than half grown, and all older than the young of the herodias, he thinks it must com- 

 mence laying by the 1st of February. 



According to Mr. March, this species occurs occasionally in Jamaica, but is rare 

 on that island. It may always be readily recognized by its superior size, the absence 

 of occipital plumes, and by the lengthened feathers of the back of the head. It is 

 regarded as a straggler. Mr. Audubon states that the eggs are always three in num- 

 ber, measure tAvo and three quarters inches in length, and one and two thirds inches 

 in breadth, and have a rather thick shell of a uniform plain light bluish-green color. 

 An egg in my collection (Xo. 285) collected by jSIr. Audubon in 1832, is of a slightly 

 oblong oval shape, and nearly equally rounded at either end. Its color is somewhat 

 faded, but seems to have been a light wash of Prussian blue mingled with rather 

 more than the usual proportion of green than in most of the eggs of the Heron fam- 

 ily. It measures 2.75 inches in length, and 1.90 inches in breadth, having the same 

 length, but a greater breadth, than in the measurements given by Mr, Audubon. 



The bird known as A. Wurdemannl, which Mr. Ridgway regards as merely the 

 colored phase of this species, is even more rare than the white form called occiden- 

 talis. Its habits may be safely presumed to be not essentially different from those 

 of either of these two species. So far as known, its residence seems to be confined 

 to Southern Florida and to the West India Islands. It is enumerated by Mr. March 

 as one of the birds of Jamaica, where the fishermen and the gunners on the coast 

 regard it as the male of the herodias in its summer plumage, Mr. March's obser- 

 vations led him to the conclusion that the two are entirely distinct species. Eggs 

 of this species collected by Mr. Maynard in Southern Florida are more rounded than 

 the eggs of most of the Heron family, and have the same uniform color of light 



VOL. I. — 2 



