AVES ARDEID/E. 399 



The descriptions are based on four individuals from the Museo de La 

 Plata and Pozzi Collections in the Princeton University Museum, a fine 

 series in the British Museum of Natural History and specimens in the 

 Paris Museum. 



The nearest ally to B. striata appears to be B. atricapilla, peculiar to 

 tropical Africa and Madagascar. This is of interest from the point of view 

 of dispersal or distribution, as the North American form, B. virescens, and 

 its allies touch the northern range of B. striata. Now B. striata does 

 not resemble B. virescens in color, but so closely resembles B. atricapilta 

 as to be difficult to discriminate. B. atricapilla in its tone is nearly like 

 B. javanica, which is found in the Indian Peninsula, Ceylon, south China, 

 the Malay Peninsula, the Philippine group, etc. So that here we have a 

 good example of species of a genus widely separated geographically, 

 which are almost identical in appearance, and of two species of the same 

 genus whose ranges almost overlap and yet are very different in color. 



Mr. Barrows found this bird common and breeding in the region about 

 the town of Concepcion del Uruguay; this is some hundred and sixty 

 miles directly north of Buenos Aires. He describes the bird as unsus- 

 picious and readily observed at a short distance. Its general habits seem 

 not unlike those of B. virescens and it is eminently, as is that bird, a 

 diurnal and not a nocturnal bird ; green herons go to roost early in the 

 twilight and are not even crepuscular in their habits. They fish in shoal 

 water for small fish, frogs and fresh-water crayfishes ; their agility in catching 

 their tiny prey is noticeable, and yet at times they rely on their immobility, 

 allowing the desired minnow to approach, when the unfortunate is fixed 

 by a single dexterous stroke. 



Genus ARDETTA Gray. 



Type. 



Ardftta, Gray, List Gen. 1842, App. p. 13; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. 



BriL Mus. XXVI. p. 220 (1898); id. Hand-List Bds. 



I. p. 202 (1899) A. minuta. 



Ardeola, Bonap. Ann. Lye. N. Y. II. p. 307 (1826) (nee 



Boie, 1822) A. exilis. 



Erodiscus, Gloger, Handb. I. p. 410 (1842) . . A. minuta. 



Geographical Range. Almost cosmopolitan in temperate and tropical 

 regions. 



