110 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



fication a mounted specimen of a bird which had been shot in the 

 marsh near Toronto. It corresponded exactly with the description 

 given of Cory's Bittern, but to make sure I sent the specimen to Mr. 

 Ridgway, who at once pronounced it a genuine specimen of neoxenus. 

 Mr. Cross got the specimen in good condition and mounted it very 

 nicely. It is now in the collection of the Canadian Institute in To- 

 ronto. So the record stood for Canada until the summer of the 

 present year, when notice was received of a second specimen having 

 been captured at Toronto. On this occasion a female in perfect plu- 

 mage was shot by a fisherman named Ramsden, in the Ashbridge 

 marsh, near where the first was found, and within two days of the 

 same date, the first being taken on the 18th of May, 1890, and the 

 second on the 20th May, 1893. This makes a total of eight speci- 

 mens now known to be in collections. 



This is evidently a southern bird, and it has not been found any- 

 where away from Florida, where it was first discovered, except these 

 two specimens which have been obtained so near the same place at 

 Toronto. No doubt this species associates with our common little 

 bitterns, many of which spend the winter in Florida, and it is just 

 possible that some gallant exilis has in his own way painted the 

 beauties of Ashbridge's marsh in such glowing colors as to induce this 

 little l^rown lady to accompany him to the north, when he started on 

 his annual journey in spring. Pity she did not fare better, as her 

 report might have induced others to follow the route. 



Subfamily ARDEIN^. Herons and Egrets. 



Genus ARDEA Linn. 



Subgenus ARDEA. 



ARDEA HERODIAS Linn. 



73. Great Blue Heron. (194) 



Back, without peculiar plumes at any season, but scapulars lengthened and 

 lanceolate J an occipital crest, two feathers of which are long and filamentous; 

 long loose feathers on the lower neck. Length, about 4 feet ; extent, 6 ; bill, 5| 

 inches; tarsus, 63; middle toe and claw, 5; wing, 18-20; tail, 7. Female: — 

 Much smaller than male. Adult of both sexes grayish-blue above, the neck 

 pale purplish-brown with a white throat line ; the head, black, with a white 

 frontal patch; the vinder parts mostly black, streaked with white; til)ia, edge 

 of wing and some of the lower neck feathers, orange-brown ; bill and eyes, 



