BULLETIN 



NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



VOL. VII. January, 1882. No. i. 



ON AN APPARENTLY NEW HERON FROM 

 FLORIDA. 



BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. 



The following facts in relation to an apparently hitherto un- 

 noticed large Heron found in Southwestern Florida, I am kindly 

 permitted to lay before the readers of the Nuttall Bulletin, by 

 Mr. Charles W. Ward, of Pontiac, Michigan, who spent several 

 v^eeks at the breeding grounds of the bird in question, and was 

 thus enabled to make many very interesting observations on its 

 habits, etc. Mr. Ward's memoranda are especially interesting 

 in connection with the question of Ardea occidentalis Aud. and 

 A ivilrdemanni Baird, but unfortunately the matter, in the light 

 of the evidence which he adduces, becomes involved in greater 

 obscurity than before. 



Under date of September 3 (18S1), Mr. Ward writes as 

 follows . — 



" My observations of the Herons during the past season do not 

 correspond with those of Mr. N. B. Moore, as recorded on page 

 232 of your article*, in regard to their feeding habits. I found 

 them generally living in communities, roosting, nesting, and 

 feeding together, like Pigeons, and often observed flocks of 

 the Little White, Reddish, and other Egrets, feeding together 



* Cf. Bull. U. S. Geol. Geogr. Survey Terr. Vol. IV, No. i, pp. 231, 232. 



