FAMILY ARDEIDAE 8l 



(173.7), exposed culmen 127-146 (137), tarsus 157-194 (175.4) mm. 

 I collected an adult female at Jaque, Darien, April 8, 1946. There 

 are specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zoology taken in 

 Bocas del Toro, on the Rio Changuinola, October 30, 1927 ; in San 

 Bias at Perme November 15 and 26, and December 9, 1929. (The 

 record by Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 72, 1932, p. 310) 

 of one from Obaldia apparently was in error, as there is no entry 

 in the museum catalog of a bird from that locality.) Blake (Fiel- 

 diana: Zool., vol. 36, 1958, p. 505) reports one from over 1600 

 meters, above Boquete, November 19, 1946. Other definite records 

 include one banded at Waseca, Minn., May 23, 1925, killed at Gatun, 

 C.Z., the following September ; and another, banded at Montgomery, 

 Minn., June 5, 1925, taken on Gatun Lake the next September 

 (Cooke, Auk, 1946, p. 254). Records during the period of northern 

 winter on Isla Coiba, Isla Taboga, and Isla San Jose (in the Pearl 

 Islands) probably are of this migrant race, (which may be expected 

 on any of the islands of the Archipielago de las Perlas) . 



ARDEA HERODIAS LESSONII Wagler 

 Ardea Lessonii Wagler, Isis, 1831, col. 531. (Valley of Mexico.) 



Characters. — Darker gray above, similar to A. h. herodias in size. 



Apparently resident, though no breeding records are known ; found 

 in small numbers. 



Specimen records are as follows: Male, fully adult, in breeding 

 dress. Fort San Lorenzo, Canal Zone, June 21, 1911, and female, 

 immature dress, Rio Matisnillo, near Paitilla Point, Panama, Janu- 

 ary 20, 1912, E. A. Goldman; female immature, Jaque, Darien, 

 March 20, 1946, A. Wetmore; male immature, Laguna de Pita, 

 Darien, about August 15, 1893 (Salvador! and Festa, Boll. Mus. 

 Anat. Comp. Torino, no. 339, 1899, p. 11). 



With regard to the specimen collected by Festa, preserved in 

 the Institute e Museo di Zoologia of the University of Torino, 

 Miss Lucia Rossi writes me that the tibia is colored cinnamon- 

 brown, indicating that the bird is of the species herodias. In Ardea 

 cocoi this area is gray. From the data it is probable that the bird 

 is of the present subspecies. 



Other records of interest that may apply to this race are as 

 follows: Imhof (MS. notes) recorded one on the Rio Chagres, above 

 Gamboa, June 9, and another near Panama Vie jo, June 20, 1942. 

 Eisenmann (Wilson Bull. 1951, pp. 182, 183) reported birds regu- 

 larly near the City of Panama between June 17 and July 16 from 



