BIRDS 255 



Genus Butorides BIyth. 

 Butorides Blyth, Cat. Birds, Mus. Asiat. Soc, p. 201, 1849. 



Range. — North and South America, Africa, southern Asia to 

 Australia. 



26. BUTORIDES PLUMBEUS (Sundevall). 



Butorides javanicus Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 323, 

 1870 (Galapagos). 



Ardea plumbea Sundevall, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend., pp. 125-127, 1871 (Gal- 

 apagos). 



Butorides plumbeus Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 602, 1896. — 

 Rothschild and Hartert, Novit. Zool., vi, p. 181, 1899. 



Range. — Galapagos Archipelago : Chatham, Hood, Charles, Bar- 

 rington. Indefatigable, Seymour, Duncan, Jervis, James, Albemarle, 

 Narboro, Bindloe, Abingdon, Tower and Wenman. 



Common almost everywhere in the archipelago, especially so in the 

 mangrove swamps of Albemarle and Narboro. They are very tame 

 and allow one to approach them closely before they fly. When they 

 take flight, whether frightened or not, they nearly always utter in slow 

 succession elongated squawks. When about to alight they shorten 

 the notes and utter them more rapidly. In February we secured a set 

 of three eggs at Elizabeth Bay, Albemarle. The nest consisted of a 

 loosely constructed platform of dead twigs, placed in a tree of a man- 

 grove swamp, about eight feet above the water. The eggs are plain 

 light green, measuring 41 x 33, 41 X 32.5, and 42 x 33. They are 

 widest at the middle and symmetrically narrowed at each end. 



Genus Nyctanassa Stejneger. 

 Nyctanassa Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, p. 295, 1887. 



Range. — Temperature North America and all of Middle and South 

 America. Galapagos Archipelago. 



27. NYCTANASSA VIOLACEA (Linnaeus). 



Ardea violacea Linn^us, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 143, 1758. 



Nyctiiorax violaceus Gould, Zool. Voy. Beagle, in, Birds, p. 128, 1841 



(Galapagos). 

 Nyctanassa violacea Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, p. 606, 1896. 



— Rothschild and Hartert, Novit. Zool., vi, p. 182, 1899. 



Range. — Tropical and southern north temperature parts of Amer- 

 ica. Galapagos Archipelago: Charles, Hood, Chatham, Indefati- 

 gable, Seymour, James, Albemarle, Narboro, Bindloe and Tower. 



This heron is not nearly so common about the archipelago as the last. 

 We obtained one set of three eggs in May on Indefatigable. The nest 



