Ridgway on an Apparently New Heron from Florida. 5 
the perfect colored phase of that species.* There are hence sev- 
eral hypotheses which might be plausibly argued upon theoreti- 
cal grounds, and which may be stated as follows: (i) That A. 
occidentalism A. wurdemanni , A. wardi , and A. herodias all 
belong to a single species, which reaches its extremes of variation 
in the first- and last-named ; (2) That these names include three 
distinct races or species : A. herodias, which is never white ; A. 
occidentalism which is dichromatic (having separate white and 
colored phases) , and A. wardi , also dichromatic, its white phase 
indistinguishable from that of A. occidentalism and its colored 
phase distinguishable from that of the same species (A. wurde- 
manni) by the different pattern and color of the head and neck 
alone ; and (3) that there are two species, A. occidentalis and 
A. herodias , which in Florida hybridize on an extensive scale, 
producing the intermediate specimens which have been distin- 
guished as A. wurdemanni and A. wardi. 
Of these hypotheses I have, after careful consideration of them 
all, concluded to adopt the second as being most consistent with 
known facts, and accordingly propose for the bird in question the 
name 
486* Ardea wardi Ridgw. 
Ward’s Heron. 
With the following characters : — 
Ch. — Colored phase exactly like A. wurdeinamii (==. dark phase of A. 
occidentalis f) , but with the head colored as in A. herodias. Differing 
from herodias in much larger size (culmen 6.50-7.00 inches, tarsus, 8.50-9.00 
inches), lighter general coloration, and (in dried skin) light brown instead 
of black legs. Dichromatic; the white phase being indistinguishable 
from that of A. occidentalis (?). 
Adult $ (No. 82,329, U. S. Nat. Mus., Oyster Bay, Florida, March, 
1881 ; Chas. W. Ward) : Head white, with the sides of the crown and en- 
tire occiput (including the lengthened plumes) deep black ; f neck laven- 
der-gray (much lighter than in the type of wurdemanni ), the fore-neck 
* After many careful examinations of the type specimen, I am led to the conclusion 
that it does represent the perfect colored phase, since no combination, or'division, of 
the markings of A. herodias and A. occidentalis — or, in other words, no partial devel- 
opment of the head-pattern of the former — would give the peculiar markings which 
distinguish A. wurdemanni. 
t The pattern of coloration of the head exactly as in A. herodias , and not at all like 
A. wurdemanni. 
