362 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 
Adult male, eye vand_vke brown ; bare skin about eye lake red ; 
bill hazel brown : bare skin on throat Chinese orange, feet burnt carmine. 
GuARA RUBRA (Linnaeus). 
Tantalus ruber L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 241. 
F.udociinus ruber Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 124. 
Native name Coro-coro Cblorado. Abundant in the delta region, 
but comparatively rare along the middle Orinoco, and not observed 
beyond the falls. 
ARDEIDAE— THE HERONS. 
The Orinoco, first in the delta region, with its enormous areas of 
swamp and woodland, and then in the vast thinly wooded savannas 
that border the middle stretches of the river and its tributaries (espe- 
cially the Apure) with their numberless shallow ponds and marshes 
heavily bordered with tangled forest growth, furnishes ideal conditions 
for herons and other species of similar habits, and is indeed the home of 
myriads of these birds. 
While the number of species of herons found is not large — only 
thirteen — the number of indixiduals is probably as great or greater than 
that of any other group. 
Ardea cocoi Linnaeus. 
Ardca cocoi L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 237; Berlepsch, Ibis, 18S4. 
p. 43S (Angostura) ; Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 124. 
Native name Garza moreiia. Common along the lower and middle 
stretches of the Orinoco and its tributaries. It is one of the character- 
istic birds of the Orinoco where its habit of perching high up on the 
branches of the tall trees on the river bank, where it is afforded an 
unobstructed view in all directions, makes it a conspicuous object in the 
landscape. Exceedingly wary, it takes flight at the approach of a 
canoe long ere the hunter i^ within range. The natives hunt them for 
food but for my own part I do not consider the meat a delicacy. 
Adult male, eye bright straw yellow ; bill rather bright Gladstone 
yellow, blackish slate at base of maxilla (from middle of nostrils pos- 
teriorly) and a narrow dusky streak along the basal cutting edge of the 
mandible ; extreme base of mandible and bare skin about eye bottle green ; 
feet black. The blackish slate and Gladstone yellow on the maxilla 
blend into one another very gradually. 
