GREAT BLUE HERON. 87 



California Great Blue Heron. Ardea herodias hyperonca Oberholser. 



The great blue herons of the Pacific coast from Oregon to southern 

 California have lately been segregated by Oberholser under the name 

 of hyperonca. A specimen from Oregon (Peale) without any defi- 

 nite locality indicates the probability that the coast-breeding birds 

 of that State should be assigned to this form^ and thence it extends 

 south to San Diego, Cal. (Cooper). How far back from the coast 

 this form ranges, and to which form should be assigned the great 

 blue herons of the interior valleys of California are points not yet 

 decided. 



West Indian Great Blue Heron. Ardea herodias adoxa Oberhholser. 



According to Oberholser, who has recently described this form, 

 this subspecies includes all the breeding birds of the entire Greater 

 and Lesser Antilles, with the addition of the Bahamas on the north 

 and Curagao Island off the coast of Venezuela on the south. A strange 

 fact in the life history of this form is that it is a pronounced migrant. 

 It is known in the winter season as a not rare visitant to the whole 

 Lesser Antilles, but is not known to breed on any of them, nor is it 

 probable that it breeds on either Porto Rico or Haiti. While fairly 

 common in winter on many of the Bahamas, it has not yet been found 

 breeding on any of them, though birds have been noted at what 

 might have been and probably was the breeding season. The species 

 is recorded as more common in Jamaica during the winter than in 

 summer, hence no great numbers probably leave this island. 



The status of the birds of the Isle of Pines and of Cuba, in which 

 latter country it is a common breeder, remains entirely unsettled, 

 nor is it known whether they belong to this new form or to wardi. 

 The most that can be said at present is that the great blue heron is 

 a winter resident in Haiti, Porto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles south 

 to the islands of Trinidad and Curacao, but that there is nothing 

 certain known as yet concerning the summer home of these in- 

 dividuals. 



Mexican Great Blue Heron. Ardea herodias lessoni Wagler. 



Many years ago the great blue herons of the mainland of Mexico 

 were named as above and these birds breed in favorable localities 

 over much of Mexico south to Guerrero and east to Campeche. They 

 occur as migrants and winter residents throughout the whole of 

 Central America to central Costa Rica. 



The status of the great blue herons of northwestern South America 

 is not yet settled, but the bird occurs in the breeding season from 



