362 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 



Adult male, eye vandyke brown; bare skin about eye lake red; 

 bill hazel brown ; bare skin on throat Chinese orange, feet burnt carmine. 



GuARA RUBRA (Linnaeus). 

 Tantalus ruber L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 241. 

 Eudocimns ruber Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 124. 



Native name Coro-coro Colorado. Abundant in the delta region, 

 but comparatively rare along the middle Orinoco, and not observed 

 beyond the falls. 



ARDEIDAE— THE HERONS. 

 The Orinoco, first in the delta region, with its enormous areas of 

 swamp and woodland, and then in the vast thinly wooded savannas 

 that border the middle stretches of the river and its tributaries (espe- 

 cially the Apure) with their numberless shallow ponds and marshes 

 heavily bordered with tangled forest growth, furnishes ideal conditions 

 for herons and other species of similar habits, and is indeed the home of 

 myriads of these birds. 



While the number of species of herons found is not large — only 

 thirteen — the number of individuals is probably as great or greater than 

 that of any other group. 



Ardea cocoi Linnaeus. 

 Ardea cocoi L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 237; Berlepsch, Ibis, 1884. 



p. 438 (Angostura) ; Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 124. 



Native name Garsa morena. Common along the lower and middle 

 stretches of the Orinoco and its tributaries. It is one of the character- 

 istic birds of the Orinoco where its habit of perching high up on the 

 branches of the tall trees on the river bank, where it is afforded an 

 unobstructed view in all directions, makes it a conspicuous object in the 

 landscape. Exceedingly wary, it takes flight at the approach of a 

 canoe long ere the hunter is within range. The natives hunt them for 

 food but for my own part I do not consider the meat a delicacy. 



Adult male, eye bright straw yellow ; bill rather bright Gladstone 

 yellow, blackish slate at base of maxilla (from middle of nostrils pos- 

 teriorly) and a narrow duslyy streak along the basal cutting edge of the 

 mandible ; extreme base of mandible and bare skin about eye bottle green ; 

 feet black. The blackish slate and Gladstone yellow on the maxilla 

 blend into one another very gradually. 



