February 6, 1903 Vol. Ill, pp. 99-100 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW RACE OF THE GREAT 

 BLUE HERON FROM THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 



BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



The great blue heron has long been known to be resident 

 in the Galapagos Islands, and the various writers on the ornis 

 of that remarkable region, have always referred the bird to true 

 Ardea herodias, usually, however, somewhat doubtfully. Ridg- 

 way has always questioned this identification and Rothschild and 

 Hartert l speak of the pale neck and upper and under wing 

 coverts, but do not separate the island form by name. 



In his lately published work on the birds of the Cape Region 

 of Lower California ' 2 Brewster describes at length an adult male 

 great blue heron from San Jose del Cabo, that is very pale in 

 color and otherwise peculiar ; and perhaps, when more specimens 

 are available, the great blue herons of Lower California and those 

 of the Galapagos will prove very similar, as is the case with the 

 oystercatchers of the two regions. 



On carefully comparing the one Galapagos great blue heron in 

 our collection with a large series of North American specimens, 

 there is no doubt left in my mind as to the distinctness of the two 

 birds, but as the custom of treating slightly differentiated island 

 forms as subspecies is gaining ground among ornithologists, 



1 Not. Zool. Vol. 6, 1899, p. 180 (five females). 



3 Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California, William Brewster, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 Vol. XLI, no. i, Sept., 1903, pp. 50-51. 





