3()'> Field Museum of Natural History — -Zoology, Vol. IX. 



Lake Okeechobee, in 1886, and since then half a dozen specimens 

 have been killed in that locality and several in Canada, Michigan, 

 and elsewhere, including two in Wisconsin. It has not as yet been 

 observed in Illinois. 



Adult: Top of the head, back, and tail, dark greenish black, show- 

 ing a green gloss when held in the light. Sides of the head and throat, 

 rufous chestnut, the feathers on the back of the neck showing greenish 

 black tips; breast and under parts, nearly uniform chestnut, shading 

 into dull black on the sides; wing coverts, dark rufous chestnut; all 

 the remiges, entirely slaty plumbeous; under tail coverts, dull black. 



Wing, 4.30; tarsus, 1.40; bill, 1.80. 



An adult male was killed at Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin, May 

 22, 1893, t»y C. E. Akcley. (No. 2041, Field Museum of Natural His- 

 tory. ) What is supposed to have been a bird of this species is given 

 by Kumlien and Hollister (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 34 ) who write: 

 " In June, 1845, Thure Kumlien found some Indian children playing 

 with a small headless heron, using it as a target for bow and arrow 

 practice. This was on an Indian encampment on Black Hawk 

 Island, Lake Koshkonong. The bird was new to him and he secured 

 it and later sent a color sketch to Dr. T. M. Brewer. Brewer pro- 

 nounced it some southern species or a different plumage of the Least 

 Bittern. A copy, or in fact the original sketch, is still in our posses- 

 sion and it plainly shows the specimen to have been a typical 

 Ardetta neoxena." 



Subfamily ARDEINi^. Herons and Egrets. 



Genus ARDEA Linn. 



82. Ardea herodias Linn. 

 Great Blue Heron. 



Distr.: North America, from the Arctic regions south to the West 

 Lidies and northern South America; also recorded from Bermuda 

 and the Galapagos Islands. 



Adult: Crest, lengthened; bill, yellow, dark brown on top; legs 

 and feet, dark brown; soles of the feet, yellow; a streak from the 

 forehead to the middle of the crown, white; sides of the crown and 

 crest feathers, black; neck, grayish purple mixed with black and white ; 

 chin and part of the cheeks, whitish, extending in a tawny line on the 

 throat; neck plumes; belly, black, streaked with white; back and 



