Fresrvuary 23, 1912 Vou. IV, pp. 83-84 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 
A NEW RACE OF GREAT BLUE HERON FROM ESPIRITU 
SANTO ISLAND, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 
BY JOHN E. THAYER AND OUTRAM BANGS. 
WHILE collecting birds and eggs in Lower California for the 
Thayer Museum at Lancaster, Massachusetts, Mr. W. W. Brown, 
Jr., discovered a large ‘rookery’ of Great Blue Herons in Espiritu 
Santo Island, and secured there six adult, breeding birds. The 
skins agree in very large size and peculiarly pale coloration with 
the example which Brewster discussed at length in his ‘ Birds of 
the Cape Region of Lower California,’ and although in color very 
like Ardea herodias cognata of the Galapagos, the Cape San Lucas 
race is so much larger that it seems to deserve recognition as — 
Ardea herodias sancti-luce subsp. nov. 
Type, from Espiritu Santo Island, Lower California, adult o’, no. 18,303, 
coll. of John E. Thayer, collected June 13, 1910, by W. W. Brown, Jr. 
Characters — A very large Great Blue Heron, with all the colors very 
pale. Size nearly as great as in Ardea herodias wardi Ridg. of Florida. 
Colors almost exactly as in Ardea herodias cognata Bangs of the Galapagos, 
from which it differs in much larger size. 
