g2 NOTES ON THE 
I have never found them later than the 25th of August, yet 
sportsmen are confident of having seen them in the distance on 
flat prairies west of the Big Woods as late as the same date in 
September. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill slender, yellowish to the tip, culmen nearly straight, 
more convex terminally than the gonys; middle toe more than 
half the tarsus, outer toe longest, claws moderate, considerably 
curved; tarsus broadly scutellate anteriorly; head smooth; 
back, in breeding season with a series of plumes longer than 
the tail, and curving gently downwards; tail of twelve broad, 
stiffened feathers; back of neck well feathered; feet black; 
colors pure white at all times. 
Length, 40; wing, 17; bill, 5; tarsus, 6. 
Habitat, America, chiefly south. 
ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA Gmetin. (197.) 
SNOWY HERON. 
We must consider this species as in a measure a straggler, 
so infrequently has it been seen under circumstances of cer- 
tain identification. . 
I have seen them several times when from their smaller size, 
IT could scarcely doubt their being this species, but they were 
too cautious for me to secure any. I found one in Mr. Howl-- 
ing’s collection many years ago and two others since, the lat- 
ter of which came to him from the Red River country ‘‘some- 
where.” Sportsmen claiming to know the species well, insist 
that they meet considerable numbers of them in both spring 
and fall shooting along the Minnesota River in occasional 
years, but I am apprehensive that they confound the other 
species with it, (A. Egretta), notwithstanding their assur- 
ances that they can distinguish them. That a few visit us is 
certain however, and that they go somewhat beyond the lati- 
tude of St. Paul and Minneapolis cannot be disputed, but sev- 
eral years have intervened between any observations of their 
presence by myself or others. They are described as follows: 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill compressed; culmen slightly concave in the basal two- 
thirds, terminally more convex than the gonys; middle toe 
three-fourths the tarsus; tibia bare for nearly one-half; occiput 
with a full crest of loosely fibred feathers as long as the bill; 
feathers on lower part of throat somewhat similar; middle of 
back with a series of plumes, with the fibrille distant and 
lengthened, plumes recurved at the tip, where the fibrillee of 
