108 * AKDEID^. 



Young. General colour bluish grey, lighter and more pearly grey 

 below ; the feathers of the upper surface with broad whity-brown 

 tips and the breast- feathers washed with vinous, as also the neck ; 

 the throat and centre of fore-neck clear vinous. Some young birds 

 are much more rufous than others and have the throat and sides of 

 the face very strongly washed with cinnamon, a shade of which 

 is also apparent on the crown. 



In the ' Water-Birds of Xorth America ' Messrs. Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway have reviewed the remarkable facts connected with 

 the two phases of colour of this Heron. Audubon believed the 

 white bird to be the young of the rufous bird ; but this seems to 

 be disproved at once by the Texan birds in the Museum, which 

 have fully- developed breeding-plumes in the white phase as well 

 as in the rufous. The above-named authors write : — " In Florida, 

 where A. pealei (white phase) and J., rufa breed abundantly, both 

 forms have been found in the same nest attended by parents either 

 both reddish, both white, or one in each of these stages of plumage ; 

 other circumstances at the same time leading irresistibly to the 

 conclusion that the two phases are not only specifically distinct, 

 but that they have nothing to do with sex, age, or season." In the 

 Salvin-Godmau CoUection there is a specimen from Cozumel which 

 is in the full plumage of I), rufa, but has one of the quills white. 

 Mr. Salvin shot a specimen at Chiapam which has the whole of 

 the neck hoarj- whitish, but this may be due to the presence of 

 young feathers. Most of the immature birds have a good deal of 

 white at the base of the ([uills. 



Hah. The same as that of the genus. 



a. Gretj phase. 



«, b. S ad. ; c-i. Tarpon Springs, Florida, May Salvin-Godman Coll. 



2 ad. sk. ( W. E. D. Scott), 



k, I. (^ ad. sk. Corpus Cbristi, Texas, March Salvin-Godman Coll. 



(P. B. Armstrong). 

 7)1. c? ad. sk. Brownsville, May (F. B. Arm- Salvin-Godmaa Coll. 



strony). 

 n. 2 ad. sk. Aransas Bay, June {F. B. Sah-in-Godman Coll. 



Armstron;/). 

 «. 2 ad. ; p, q. Presidio, Mexico, Dec, Jan. Salvin-Godman Coll. 



6 2 .iuv. sk. {A. Forrer). 



r. Ad. St. Mexico. Purchased. 



s-y. Ad. ; s-/'. Cozumel Island {G. F. Salvin-Godman Coll. 



Juv. sk. Gauvier). 



(/. 2 ad. sk. Istan, Guatemala, Jan. 18G3 Salvin-Godman Coll. 



{O.S.). 

 A'. Juv. sk. Chiapam, Guatemala (O. .S'.). Salvin-Godmau Coll. 



b. White phase. 



a. Ad. St. North America. J. J. Audubon, Esq. 



[P.]. 



b. 2 ad. sk. Punta Russa, Florida, May 10 Salvin-Godman Coll. 



( W. E. D. Scott). 



c. d. cJ ad. ; e. 2 Brownsville, Texas, April, Salvin-Godman Coll. 

 ad. sk. May {F. B. Armstrong). 



