ARDEID.E — TlIK IIKIIONS — DICUROMAXASSA. 



35 



Florida, where ^4. Pealei and A. rufa breed abundantly, both forms have been found in the same 

 nest, attended by parents either both reddish, both white, or one in each of these stages of plumage ; 

 other circumstances at the same time leading irresistibly to the conclusion that the two phases are 



White plmse,-^ D. " Pealei." 



not only not specifically distinct, but that they have nothing to do with either sex, age, or season. 

 The same condition of " dicbromatism " ejdsts also in several Old World species of this family, 

 and probably also in the American Ardea occidmtalis, AuD. 



While accepting the identity of the two forms, nifa and Pealei, as one and the 

 same specifically, notwithstanding the incongruities of their plumage, it will be con- 

 venient in giving its history as that of one species, at the same time to distinguish 

 the white form as Peale's Egret, and the blue-and-russet one as the Eeddish Egret, 

 or rufa. Peale's Egret is an extremely southern bird to the United States, occurring 

 only in Florida and on the Gulf coast to Mexico. It is found in several West India 

 islands, on the ilexican coast, in Central America, and the northern parts of South 

 America, in the last of which its distribution is not ascertained. It is common in 

 Cuba, where it breeds abundantly, and from whence I have received its eggs from 

 Dr. Gundlach. It is not given by either Gosse or March as a bird of Jamaica. Mr. 

 Dresser mentions it, on the authority of Dr. Heermann, as not uncommon near San 

 Antonio, Texas, and throughout the eastern part of that State during the summer 

 months. 



Mr. Salviu met with it on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, where it was very 

 generally, though nowhere very commonly, met with among the mud-flats that sur- 

 round the salt-pools in the neighborhood of Chiapam. Mr. G. C. Taylor mentions it 

 as plentiful in all suitable localities in Honduras. In the Bay of Fonseca he noticed 

 large trees overhanging the water, that seemed nearly covered with birds of this form. 

 Audubon regarded it as the young of the Eusset Egret, supposing that in its third 

 summer the white bird would put on the plumage of that bird. The two forms are 

 now regarded as distinctly permanent ; and it is impossible to separate from Audu- 

 bon's account of the nifescens that which may be peculiar to the white-plumaged 

 bird. It is not probable that there exist any very material differences in the habits 

 of the two forms. It is very evident from Audubon's account that they breed together 

 in the same heronries, and that they permit no other kind to frequent the same settle- 



