BULLETIN 
OF THE 
NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
vol. vii. January, 1882. • No. 1. 
ON AN APPARENTLY NEW HERON FROM 
FLORIDA. 
BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. 
The following facts in relation to an apparently hitherto un- 
noticed large Heron found in Southwestern Florida, I am kindly 
permitted to lay before the readers of the Nuttall Bulletin, by 
Mr. Charles W. Ward, of Pontiac, Michigan, who spent several 
weeks at the breeding grounds of the bird in question, and was 
thus enabled to make many very interesting observations on its 
habits, etc. Mr. Ward’s memoranda are especially interesting 
in connection with the question of Ardea occidentalis Aud. and 
A wurdemanni Baird, but unfortunately the matter, in the light 
of the evidence which he adduces, becomes involved in greater 
obscurity than before. 
Under date of September 3 (1881), Mr. Ward writes as 
follows : — 
u My observations of the Herons during the past season do not 
correspond with those of Mr. N. B. Moore, as recorded on page 
232 of your article*, in regard to their feeding habits. I found 
them generally living in communities, roosting, nesting, and 
feeding together, like Pigeons, and often observed flocks of 
the Little White, Reddish, and other Egrets, feeding together 
* Cf Bull. U. S. Geol. Geogr. Survey Terr. Vol. IV, No. i, pp. 231, 232. 
