2 Ridgway on an Apparently New Heron from Florida. 
like Teal Ducks. Two specimens of A. occidentalis were seen 
feeding quietly within twenty feet of one of the Herons procured 
by me [A. wardi , nobis]. They were feeding on a mud bar 
at low tide. I was once concealed in the low brush near a small 
pool watching three Louisiana Egrets chasing minnows, when 
two of them making for the same minnow squared off for a 
knock-down, while the third coolly appropriated the prize, leaving 
the combatants situated like complainant and defendant at the 
close of a law suit. In all my observations of the Herons I have 
seen nothing to lead to a conclusion that one of these birds held 
any particular antipathy against its own species while feeding. 
In the many squabbles between Herons on their feeding grounds 
the encounters occurred quite as often between different species 
as members of the same species. It may be that during the breed- 
ing season they are more friendly than at other times. In order 
that you may understand my opportunities for observing these 
birds, I enclose a rough map of Mound Key and surroundings, 
my camping place from January 20 till April 10. As you will 
see by the figures marked .... it was in the midst of their 
feeding grounds, these places being mud- and sand-bars, bare at 
low tide. Regarding the Reddish Egret, among many thousands 
of them I saw only one in the pure white plumage, and no white 
young ; but one of my dark specimens has white feathers on the 
head and in the tail, while one of the secondary quills has the 
outer web chiefly white. My companion of last winter’s Florida 
trip reports that he saw no Reddish Egrets with white except 
on the secondaries. 
44 Regarding the large Herons [i.e., A. wardi ], I am much 
inclined to think them a geographical variety. . . . the speci- 
mens being very uniform in color. ... I examined some thirty 
nests at least, fifteen of which contained young, all being dark 
colored, with one exception. These birds are common in South- 
western Florida, and their nests are frequently found along the 
coast. From all the information at my command, connected 
with my own observations, I am almost convinced that the bird 
in question is separate and distinct from A. occide?italis and A. 
wurdemanni , and the fact that Audubon found the former in im- 
mense numbers among the mangrove islands of Eastern Florida 
is strong evidence that he happened in the vicinity of one of 
their rookeries. As you will observe by examining the diagram 
