NOETH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 123 



(probably Biloxi) ; Louisiana (Houma and Cameron Parish) ; and the 

 Gulf coast of Texas (Beaumont, Calhoun, Victoria, and Refugio 

 Counties, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville) . West to central Texas 

 (probably Gurley, Waco, and Gainesville) ; central Oklahoma and 

 Kansas. North to southeastern Iowa (Henry County) ; southeastern 

 Illinois (Mount Carmel) ; southwestern Indiana (Knox County) ; and 

 South Carolina (Hiltonhead). 



Winter range. — Florida and the GuLf States, south to central Mex- 

 ico. East to Florida (St. Johns River, Mosquito Inlet, Orlando, 

 Micco, and Miami). South to the Florida Keys (Upper Matecumbe 

 Key and Dry Tortugas, probably) ; Mississippi (probably Biloxi) ; 

 Louisiana (Marsh Island and Vermilion Bay) ; Texas (Corpus Christi 

 and Brownsville) ; and central Mexico (Ocotlan, Jalisco) . West to 

 central Mexico (Ocotlan) and Texas (Brownsville) , North to Texas 

 (Giddings) ; Arkansas (Fayettevilie and Corning) ; Mississippi (Wav- 

 erly) and Alabama (Greensboro) . 



Egg dates. — Florida: 44 records, December S to April 21; 22 

 records, February 7 to March 17. Texas: 35 records, March 8 to 

 May 27; 18 records, April 3 to May 7. 



ARDEA HERODIAS TREGANZAl Court 

 TREGANZA HERON 



HABITS 



The great blue heron of the western plains and the semiarid regions 

 of the Southwest has been given the above name, as a pallid subspe- 

 cies. In size it is but sUghtly larger than herodias, but the upper parts 

 and neck are paler in color; it is like wardi in color but is decidedly 

 smaller throughout. 



Nesting.— Owing to the nature of the country it inhabits its nest- 

 ing liabits are somewhat different from those of the other subspecies. 

 Coues (1874) gives us a vivid picture [of its breeding resorts, as 

 follows : 



The breeding places of the great blue heron on the Colorado River offer no 

 such scenes as those of the same bird do in Florida, for instance. There may, 

 indeed, be places along this river overgrown with low, dense woods, simulating 

 a cypress swamp, where the birds may resort to breed, along with the wood 

 ibises; but for the most part, the herons that wend their way along the Colorado 

 are only screened by low, straggling mezquite, that scarcely hides them, or 

 patches of arrowwood {Tessaria borealis), that they can overlook. Where the 

 river flows deepest and swiftest, cutting its way through bold canons that rise 

 frowning on either hand like the battlements of giant castles — where the fervid 

 rays of the sun heat the rocks till they almost crack, and sand blisters the feet — 

 there the herons fix their nests, overhanging the element whence they draw 

 subsistence. The face of the cliffs in many places is covered with singular nests 

 of the eave swallow, breeding by thousands; while on the flat projecting shelves 

 of rock we find, here and there, the bulky platforms of twigs and sticks, and 



