FEBRUARY 6, 1903 VoL. III, 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' 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” Brewster describes at length an adult male 
great blue heron from San José 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 Nov. Zool. Vol. 6, 1899, p. 180 (five females). 
2 Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California, William Brewster, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., 
Vol. XLI, no. 1, Sept., 1902, pp. 50-51. 
