BULLETIN 



of the 



Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 



VOLUME IX. No. i 



"Uhe 



Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) 

 in New York State. 



By Ottomar Reinecke, 

 Buffalo. N. Y. 



Up to a few years ago the attention of the traveler in 

 the Southern States, particularly in Florida, Georgia, Loui- 

 siana, as well as in the Bermudas, was attracted by the en- 

 ormous colonies of the Great Blue Herons, Snowy Herons and 

 Egrets which were met with on every hand, and even the 

 Scarlet Ibis, one of the most gorgeous of birds, was at one 

 time very numerous. At the present time some of these birds 

 are practically exterminated, and the numbers of other species 

 have been brought to a very inconsiderable figure, due to 

 the demands of fashion and the deadly work of the plume- 

 hunters to supply these demands. At present the Flamingo, 

 a most beautiful and stately species, is resident in the United 

 States only in the vicinity of Cape Sable, where in 1896 Mr. 

 W. E. Scott observed a flock of about a thousand birds. 

 Another exquisitely beautiful bird, the Roseate Spoon-bill, was 

 commonly seen in Florida, but continued persecution has so 

 reduced its numbers that Frank M. Chapman, Assistant Curator 

 of the Department of Ornithology of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York City, during a period of four 

 winters passed in different parts of the State did not observe 

 a single specimen. It nests in the extreme Southern part of 

 Florida, generally during January and February, and, after 

 the young have been reared, wanders northward. 



