Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 51 



Suborder Ciconiae. Storks, etc. 

 Family Ciconiidae. Storks and Wood Ibises. 

 Subfamily Tantalinae. Wood Ibises. 

 188. Tantalus loculator Linn. Wood Ibis. 



Water Turkey. Colorado Turkey. Gcurdhead. 



Geog. Dist. — From southern South America to southeastern 

 California, Arizona, and the Gulf coast, wandering in summer 

 northward through the lower Mississippi Valley to Missouri, 

 irregularly to Utah, Colorado, Indiana and Wisconsin, casually 

 to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. 



The Gourdhead, as it is called by the natives, is a regular sum- 

 mer visitant in the Peninsula of Missouri from July to September, 

 occurring in troops of from ten to thirty. Some years these 

 troops follow the Mississippi River into northern Missouri, 

 visiting the lakes of the bottom land, rarely ascending the lower 

 Missouri River. Dr. A. F. Eimbeck observed them but once in 

 thirty-five years, a flock of seven at New Haven, August 11 to 

 September 11, 1902. 



Suborder Herodii. Herons, Egrets, Bitterns, etc. 



Family Ardeidae. Herons, Bitterns, etc. 



Subfamily Botaurinae. Bitterns. 



*190. BoTAURUS LENTiGiNosus (Montag.). American Bittern. 



Ardea stellaris canadensis. Botaurus minor. Ardea minor. B. mugitans. 

 Stake Driver. Thunder Pump. Indian Pullet. Look-up. 



Geog. Dist. — From Guatemala northward throughout the 

 United States and in Canada to Hudson Bay and Mackenzie 

 River, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Breeds in suitable 

 localities in most parts of the United States, chiefly northward. 



In Missouri the Bittern can still be regarded a fairly common 

 summer resident and breeder in all marshes from about the first 

 of April to the end of October. In migration it may be met with 

 in unexpected places, on small pools in the woodland, on the 

 prairie, as well as on the broad marshes of the great flood plains. 



