ARDEIDfiE — THE HERONS — DICHROMANASSA. 
35 
Florida, where A. 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 
not only not specifically distinct, but that they have nothing to do with either sex, age, or season. 
The same condition of “dichromatism” exists also in several Old World species of this family, 
and probably also in the American Ardea occidental is, Aud. 
While accepting the identity of the two forms, rufa 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 Reddish 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 Mexican 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. Salvin 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 Cliiapam. Mr. G. C. Taylor mentions it 
as plentiful in all suitable localities in Honduras. In the P»ay 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 Russet 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 rufescens 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- 
