540 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.43. 



Texas; south to the Florida Keys and the Gulf coast of the southern 

 United States, from Florida to Brownsville, Texas; east to the Atlantic 

 coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Winters in Florida, 

 southern Alabama, and Texas; also in Mexico, south to Ocotlan, 

 Jalisco. 



This is a well-characterized form, and is easily distinguishable from 

 Ardea herodias Jierodias. Even in the juvenal plumage it is usually 

 paler on neck and upper surface than is Ardea h. herodias. A series 

 of breeding birds from a cypress swamp near the mouth of the Wliite 

 River, in the southwestern corner of Knox County, Indiana, and one 

 specimen from Mount Carmel, Illinois (No. 72837, U.S.N.M.), just 

 across the Wabash River, are smaller than Ardea herodias wardi from 

 Florida, and in this seem to be rather closer to Ardea herodias herodias, 

 yet in color they average much nearer Ardea herodias wardi. A single 

 example from Henry County, southeastern Iowa (No. 12358, J. 

 Dwight), and another from an unknown but probably eastern 

 locality in Kansas (No. 72836, U.S.N.M.) are pale like Ardea herodias 

 wardi, and also large, too large, in fact, for Ardea herodias herodias. 

 The present race thus doubtless occupies the southern IVIississippi 

 Valley, including eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern 

 Texas. A breeding bird from Hiltonhead, southeastern South 

 Carolina (No. 39031, U.S.N.M.), is like Ardea herodias wardi in color, 

 but is smaller, and in this somewhat intermediate between Ardea 

 herodias wardi and Ardea herodias herodias. The same remarks will 

 apply also to a specimen from Ossabaw Island, Georgia (No. 11902, 

 J. Dwight), taken November 29, 1904. This Hiltonhead, South 

 Carolina, record doubtless represents about the northernmost limit 

 of the breeding range of this subspecies on the Atlantic coast, for the 

 breeding form about Charleston is Ardea herodias herodias. No speci- 

 mens from Mississippi or from the central or northern portions of 

 Georgia or Alabama Ifave been available, but, Ardea herodias wardi 

 without doubt occupies in summer the southern part of all these 

 States. Birds from Corpus Christi, Texas, seem to be identical in 

 both size and color with those from Florida. The following com- 

 parative averages of millimeter measurements of specimens from 

 various parts of the range of Ardea herodias wardi show what differ- 

 ences exist: 



