12 ALTRICIAL CIRALLATOKES — HERODIONES. 



and no white young ; but one of my dark specimens has white feathers on the head 

 and in the tail, while one of the secondary fiuills has the outer web chiefly white. 

 My companion of last winter's Florida trip reports that he saw no Keddish Egrets 

 with white except on the secondaries. 



'' Eegarding the large Herons [i. e. A. IVarcli^, I am much inclined to think them 

 a geographical variety . . . the specimens being very uniform in color. ... I exam- 

 ined some thirty nests at least, fifteen of which contained young, all being dark col- 

 ored, irifk one exception. These birds are common in Southwestern Florida, and their 

 nests are frequently found along the coast. From all the information at ray com- 

 mand, connected with my own observations, I am almost convinced that the bird in 

 question is separate and distinct from A. occidentaUs and A. Wurdemanni, and the 

 fact that Audubon found the former in immense numbers among the mangrove 

 islands of Eastern Florida is strong evidence that he happened in the vicinity of one 

 of their rookeries. As you will observe by examining the diagram of my camping- 

 place, and noting the rookeries of large Herons, . . . these birds were quite common 

 in that vicinity; while I saw only a few specimens of A. occidentalis. The white 

 bird found in the nest with the blue might have come there from an adjoining empty 

 nest, some thirty or forty feet distant, as it could easily have done, being nearly full- 

 grown. This surmise is strengthened by the circumstance that I saw a large white 

 Heron on the island marked ' *,' and my companion killed a similar, if not the same, 

 specimen on tlie large island marked '-!,' which he threw away, supposing it to 

 be a common White Egret \_He)-odl(is egretta~\. These I now believe to have been 

 A. occldcnfiiUs ; the other ^H. egretta'\ was then laying its eggs, while the description 

 . of A. occidentalis corresponds to my recollection of the bird he killed. At the time, 

 I was not familiar with the description of A. occidentalis. 



"In the Little Blue Heron [Florida cccrulea^ and Eeddish Egret \_Dichromana.^sa 

 rvfa'], where dichromatism appears to be an established fact, each species presents 

 different phases and mixtures of both colors, especially the Little Blue, Avhich shows 

 almost every variety of curious markings of blue and wliite ; while in the Eeddish 

 Egret, one specimen shows white on the head, tail, and wings, and others reported by 

 Mr. Adams show wliite on the wings. 



" As before said, I believe the bird to be a gcHigraphical variation of A. herodias, 

 residing permanently and breeding in South Florida. I think that further search 

 and observation will develop more evidence concerning A. occidentalis and A. Wiirde- 

 vianni, which may result in confirming your theory of their being one and the same 

 species. You will jjardon my opposing your opinion ; but my convictions are so 

 strong, that only the finding of white birds with blue young, and more cases of blue 

 parents with white young, or adults showing mixtures of lioth phases, would over- 

 come them." 



Assuming that the large white birds observed by Mr. Ward were really a white 

 phase of the dark-colored birds obtained by him, which were so numerous in the 

 locality, it certainly ai)pears strange that so few of the former were seen. The case 

 of the Eeddish Egret which he cites, affords, however, an exact parallel, and it is now 

 considered established beyond question that " Peale's Egret " {Anlea Fealci, Bonap., 

 — a pure white bird) is merely a white phase of this species. As to the comparative 

 rarity of these large white birds, in the locality where observed by Mr. Ward, mili- 

 tating against any theory of their specific identity with the dark-colored l)irds, it 

 should be remembered that in the case of nearly every dichromatic species of bird 

 this condition is more or less variable with locality. A pertinent example may be 

 cited in the case of Demiegretta sacra, a Heron of wide distribution in the Far East. 



