118 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ARDEA HERODIAS WARDI Ridgway 

 WARD HERON 



HABITS 



This larger, southern race of the great blue heron is much more 

 abundant and more evenly distributed on the Florida and Gulf coasts 

 than its northern relative is throughout its wide breeding range. It 

 is also much less wary and suspicious and is therefore more often in 

 evidence near the haunts of man and more easily studied. When I 

 made my first trip down the east coast of Florida, especially where 

 the train ran along for many miles close to the shore of the Indian 

 River, I was greatly impressed with the abundance and the famiU- 

 arity of this great heron. The shore seemed to be Uned with these 

 stately birds, standing sentinels at frequent intervals or flapping lazily 

 away for a short distance; sometimes one would scale along close to 

 the water on motionless wings until it could drop its long legs down 

 and alight on some favorite sand bar or mud flat; but often it would 

 stand its ground, heedless of the rushing train. The most casual 

 traveler could hardly fail to notice such a conspicuous figure in the 

 lajidscape. 



Again in Texas, as I cruised along down the coast, these big 

 "cranes," as they are called, were daily in evidence. The marshes 

 and prairies of the coastal plains are dotted with little ''mottes" or 

 clumps of small trees or bushes, on which we often saw the long necks 

 of these herons, raised above the tree tops and scanning us from afar. 

 They were visible at a long distance and we could always tell which 

 mottes or islands were inhabited by herons. 



Nesting. — The breeding season of the Ward heron is much pro- 

 longed and one is apt to find either eggs or young in the nests at any 

 time during the winter or spring. Mr. R. D. Hoyt (1905) says: 



In its breeding habits Ward's heron is very erratic, and, with the exception of 

 the bald eagle, is one of our earliest, or perhaps more properly speaking, the lat- 

 est of our birds to l^egin nesting. It does not wait for the new year but a few 

 individuals begin operations by the latter part of November and by Christmas 

 time a few nests may be found with young. New nests are now more numerous, 

 and by the middle of January many nests will contain fresh sets of eggs. Still 

 the nest building goes on, but in diminishing numl)ers, until the latter part of 

 February. I once took a set of two fresh eggs on April 4. This may have been 

 a second set, but I am not aware that more than one brood is reared in a season. 

 Here in Hillsborough County, Fla., the site selected for the colony is almost 

 invariably a floating island in the center of a marshy spot. The growth on the 

 island is usually bay, elder, and wax myrtle — low bushj' trees all tangled up with 

 bamboo briar. Some islands contain buttonwood only, and some have only 

 willows. These islands are all small, from 20 to 100 feet in diameter, and the 

 size of the colony is determined by the space it has; from half a dozen to 30 

 pairs occupy the ground. The nests in some instances are huge structures, hav- 

 ing been renewed from year to year, presumably by the same pair of birds. They 

 are placed in any situation that forms a good foundation — the entire top of a 



