RiDGWAY 01Z an Appai-ently JVezv Hero7ifro77i Florida. 5 



the perfect colored phase of that species.* There are hence sev- 

 eral hypotheses which might be plausibly argued upon theoreti- 

 cal grounds, and which may be stated as follows: (i) That A. 

 occidentalism, A. wurdeniaujii., A. wardi., and A. herodias all 

 belong to a single species, which reaches its extremes of variation 

 in the first- and last-named ; (3) That these names include three 

 distinct races or species : A. herodias., which is never white ; A. 

 occidentalls., which is dichromatic (having separate white and 

 colored phases), and A. xuardl^ also dichromatic, its white phase 

 indistinguishable from that of A. occldentalls., and its colored 

 phase distinguishable from that of the same species {^A. wilrde- 

 man?ii) by the different pattern and color of the head and neck 

 alone; and (3) that there are two species, A. occidentalis and 

 A. herodias., which in Florida hybridize on an extensive scale, 

 producing the intermediate specimens which have been distin- 

 guished as A. iv'nrdemanni and A. xvardi. 



Of these hypotheses I have, after careful consideration of them 

 all, concluded to adopt the second as being most consistent with 

 known facts, and accordingly propose for the bird in question the 

 name 



486* Ardea wardi Rldgxv. 

 Ward's Heron. 



With the following characters : — 



Ch., — Colored phase exactly like A. wiirdemanni (^ dark phase of A. 

 occidentalis ?'). but with the head colored as in A. herodias. Differing 

 from herodias in much larger size (culmen 6.50-7.00 inches, tarsus, 8. 50-9.00 

 inches), lighter general coloration, and (in dried skin) light brown instead 

 of black legs. Dichromatic; the white phase being indistinguishable 

 from that of A. occidetitalis (/'). 



Adult S (No. 83,329, U. S. Nat. Mus., Oyster Bay, Florida, March, 

 1881 ; Chas. W. Ward) : Head white, with the sides of the crown and en- 

 tire occiput (including the lengthened plumes) deep black; f neck laven- 

 der-gray (much lighter than in the type of -viirdevia/itii)., the fore-neck 



* After many careful examinations of the type specimen, I am led to the conclusion 

 that it does represent the perfect colored phase, since no combination, or "division, of 

 the markings of A. herodias and A. occidentalis — or, in other words, no partial devel- 

 opment of the head-pattern of the former — would give the peculiar markings which 

 distinguish A. wiirdemanni. 



t The pattern of coloration of the head exactly as in A. herodias, and not at all like 

 A. ■wiirdemanni. 



