26 
Various Florida Birds. 
Mr. Outram Bangs calls our attention to the fact that the Florida bird is 
different from western examples in the darker coloring of the back as 
well as proportions, but as it is impossible for us to obtain proper 
material from the west or from Cuba it would be unwise to separate the 
Florida bird. The lack of obtainable material from Cuba is a great 
inconvenience to any one working on the relationships of Florida and 
West Indian races. 
Ardea herodias wardi Ridgw. The examination of a series of these 
birds shows unmistakable intergrades between herodias and ivardi, and 
there is no alternative in our minds except to recognize -wardi as a race 
of Ardea herodias. 
Ardea occidentalis Aud. A few of these birds were seen along the 
Kissimmee and upper Caloosalatchee rivers, but not until we had got 
south of Lat. 25 0 5^ on the east coast did we find them common. On the 
mud bars among the keys they were continually seen, though no specimens 
of A. -wurdemanii were noticed, and we can throw no light on the status of 
this interesting bird. We found Great White Herons breeding on the 
westernmost of the Oyster Keys, where w r e noted three nests containing 
young. One nest was built some ten feet above the ground in a tangle of 
cacti ( Opuntia) and underbrush. The other two were in the tops of a 
thicket of iron-wood trees (Carprinus caroliniana) about 15 feet up. 
The nests were slovenly affairs of sticks and measured scarcely two feet 
across, the first containing four half grown young, the second three 
recently hatched birds, the third two fully fledged specimens. The notes 
of both adults and young suggested those of the Great Blue Heron but 
were more guttural and raucous. The old birds were very wary, though 
to-day little disturbed in this part of Florida. 
Ardea egretta. Gmel. We did not positively identify any birds of this 
species on our Kissimmee-Caloosahatchee trip as we did not shoot any spec¬ 
imens ; but we are tolerably certain that we saw a number of them at various 
points along the former river (Hatcheneha canal). On the Cape Sable 
trip we saw at White Water Lake on March 28 one bird. This Heron is 
now, without doubt, the rarest of its kind in Florida. We are told that 
they are still consistently shot by local plume-hunters, a small colony 
having been extirpated shortly before our arrival. The birds are shipped 
by express from Key West in boxes marked “ Curiosities ”; the hunters 
receiving fifteen dollars an ounce for the plumes. There is little wonder 
that the bird is rapidly becoming exterminated, and unless something is 
done almost at once, Florida will know the Egret no more. The plume- 
hunters are not, however, as bad men as painted. They shoot the bird 
because it is a source of income for them to do so, but they kill only this 
bird and the following species. The hunters are the most difficult end of 
the trouble to attack and the least to blame, and they stand by each other 
through thick and thin. If it were possible, those interested in protection 
should put their energies to work against the dealers rather than against 
the huntei'S, 
