262 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 4 



In addition to Blake's record may be mentioned a letter written in 

 June 1946 by P. S. Peberdy of the Museum at Georgetown, British 

 Guiana, to Dr. Alexander Wetmore to the effect that the cattle egret 

 occurs in loose groups of from 10 to 40 individuals, chiefly around 

 the ricefields and ponds along the coast of Demarara. Although no 

 specimens were collected prior to Blake's 1937 example, Peberdy 

 claims that Robert Hunter observed large flocks on his hacienda in 

 1930. (Letter reproduced (in Spanish) by Phelps and Phelps, Bol. 

 Soc. Venez. Cienc. Nat., vol. 10, p. 231, 1946.) 



Venezuela. — The first reference to Buhulcus this ibis from Vene- 

 zuela seems to emanate from W. H. Phelps (Auk, vol. 61, p. 656, 

 1944) . Therein he discusses the possibility as to whether the specimen 

 secured on January 27, 1943, near San Jose de Tiznados, Guarico, by 

 Octavio Arleo B., of the Caracas Museum, was a "straggler from 

 Spain or North Africa, or whether the specimen in hand was an es- 

 caped captive bird." This was the second known specimen collected 

 in South America. It was shot from a group of four; the others 

 "looked exactly the same" (to Arleo). Apparently the existence of 

 the bird in British Guiana was not then known to Mr. Phelps, or at 

 any rate he made no mention of such. He did say that "there is a 

 passenger line of steamships from there (Spain and North Africa) 

 to Venezuela." The specimen was obtained "many hundreds of miles 

 from the seacoast" (prairies of the Apure River, in the Orinoco Val- 

 ley). It was recorded by Walter Dupouy as the first Venezuelan 

 record (Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat. La Salle, aiio 4, No. 11, pp. 1-11, 1944). 



The second Venezuelan specimen is recorded by Phelps in Bol. Soc. 

 Venez. Cienc. Nat., vol. 10, p. 230, 1946. The third, a specimen shot 

 at Laguna "La Angulera," approximately 15 kilometers south of Va- 

 lencia, state of Carabobo, on February 2, 1947, by Humberto Giugni, 

 was reported by Dupouy (Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat. La Salle, afio 7, 

 No. 19, pp. 174-178, May-August 1947). The fourth, reported as the 

 third because Dupouy's paper was unavailable to them at the time, 

 was a specimen recorded by Herbert Friedmann and Foster D. Smith, 

 Jr., under the title "A Contribution to the Ornithology of North- 

 eastern Venezuela," in the Proceedings of the U. S. National IMuseum, 

 vol. 100, p. 411, 1950. This was a male obtained August 25, 1948, at 

 Cantaura, Anzoategui. These authors have written for the Proceed- 

 ings (vol. 104, No. 3345, 1955) an account entitled "A Further Contri- 

 bution to the Ornithology of Northeastern Venezuela" containing the 

 following : 



We recorded a Venezuelan example of this heron in our earlier paper. It 

 has since been steadily increasing around the collecting stations. From 1945 

 through 1950 only one flock of 4 individuals was seen, that recorded by us. In 

 1951 the bird was recorded three times : 2 individuals, February, Caicara ; a 

 single, August, Cantaura; a single, October, Caicara. The 1952 records are as 



