RIDGWAY ON AMERICAN HERODIONES. 235 



Length nearly 50 inches, expanse 75 or more, flexure 21, leg 8, middle 

 toe about 13 [! *j, thigh 9, bill 6J, greenish brown above, yellowish be- 

 neath. 



"The fishermen and gunners on the coast say this is the male of the 

 preceding species [A. herodias] in summer plumage, but, from two speci- 

 mens 1 have collected I think they are quite distinct." 



As a Florida bird it has more recently been recorded by Mr. J. Francis 

 Le Baron, 0. E., who announces, in the number of Bod and Gun for No- 

 vember 11, 1876 (p. 83), the capture of a specimen of this bird near the 

 head of Indian Eiver, Florida, in March, 1875. His account is as fol- 

 lows : — 



. . . "By carefully paddling the boat around the points I surprised 

 and shot a few Grebes and Galliuules and was fortunate enough to see, 

 through the grass, at one of the points, a large heron standing in the 

 water. I at once fired and shot it and upon examination soon found 

 that it differed from any previously obtained. It was a beautiful bird, 

 of a bluish ash-color above, with reddish on the wings and legs. The 

 head was pure white with a black spot in the centre of the forehead, 

 and with long white plumes on the head bending gracefully back. The 

 throat was also white streaked on the sides with black and red. It 

 measured sixty inches in length, and proved to be the rare Florida or 

 Wiirdemann's Heron {Ardea tcurdemamii t) of which only two specimens, 

 it is believed, had ever been taken before. The capture of this elegant 

 bird well repaid all the hardships of the previous night." 



The last record of A. '•'• icurdemannV^ is, I believe, that by Mr. E. W. 

 Nelson, in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute (Dec. 1876, p. 151), where it 

 is given as an inhabitant of the Lower Wabash Valley, in Illinois and Indi- 

 ana, on the strength of a communication to that effect from myself. I ob- 

 served the bird at the Grand Rapids, near Mount Carmel, Illinois, at inter- 

 vals between the 11th and 22d of September, 1876; but whether there were 

 several specimens, or whether merely the same individual was seen sev- 

 eral times, I am not certain, although circumstances favored the former 

 supposition. The bird was observed, generally in the afternoon, stand- 

 ing in the shallow water of the rapids in the middle of the river (here 

 about 1,200 feet wide), entirely out of shotgun range from either shore. 

 Even from this distance it was readily distinguishable from the Common 

 Blue Heron [A. herodias), numbers of which waded about in other parts 

 of the river, by its superior size, generally lighter plumage, and con- 

 spicuously white head — there being no black whatever visible. The 

 only chance to approach it was by taking advantage of the remains of 

 an old dam, which reached out from the shore nearly to where the bird 

 was standing ; this was accomplished with such success that the bird 

 was approached to within some fifty yards, from which point snch a satis- 

 factory view was obtained as to leave no doubt whatever that it was 



* An evident error, 



t lu the original, these names are spelled " Windeinan's Heron {Ard,ea windemani)". 



