BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 135 



air-holes close to shore. Another specimen was taken at Lexington on Decem- 

 ber 8, 1 890. '■ There are several published records of the occurrence of the 

 species during this month in the immediate neighborhood of Boston. Mr. 

 Frederic H. Kennard writes me that he saw a bird in Brookline on February 5, 

 1 90 1. 



46. Florida caerulea (Linn.). 

 Little Blue Heron. 



Casual visitor from the south. 



I am indebted to my friend, Mr. H. W. Henshaw, for the following inter- 

 esting manuscript account of the capture, in the Cambridgeport Marshes, many 

 years ago, of a Little Blue Heron in the white plumage : " It must have been 

 in the early sixties, '61 or '62, when I saw for the first and only time, a little 

 white Heron {Florida aeriilca) on the Cambridge marsh not far from Whitte- 

 more's Point. It was in the early fall, September I think, after a stormy period 

 of several days, and the marsh was being traversed in every direction by six or 

 eight gunners, all after Peeps. How the unfortunate Heron had eluded the 

 scrutiny of so many eyes I know not, but when I espied it the bird was stand- 

 ing motionless in the open marsh, though in a crouching attitude as if thoroughly 

 frightened, by a small rush-bordered creek. It was ver^' tame and allowed me 

 to approach within easy range. My shot wounded it sorely, and no doubt it 

 would have soon fallen, but in its labored flight it chanced to pass near a gunner 

 who brought it down, and I lost the prize. I remember that everyone on the 

 marsh gathered around the lucky sportsman to view and handle the strange 

 bird, none of them ever having seen such a bird before. Afterwards the bird 

 was stuffed by a local taxidermist and so passed into oblivion." This is the 

 only instance known to me of the capture of the species in the region covered 

 by the present Memoir. 



In his ' Rarer Birds of Massachusetts ' Dr. Allen, writing of the Little 

 Blue Heron, says : " Mr. Maynard informs me he has recently seen it on one 

 or two occasions in autumn." ^ Mr. Maynard himself, in the ' Naturalist's 

 Guide,' ^ characterizes it as a " rare summer visitor," adding " I have met with it 



'[Editor,] Ornithologist and Oologist, XV, 1890, 18 

 ^J. A. Allen, American Naturalist, III, 1870, 637. 

 ^C. J. Maynard, Naturalist's Guide, 1870, 143. 



