EUDOCIMUS.—-PLEGADIS. 193 
In habits this bird much resembles a Curlew, procuring its food on the mud-flats 
both by night and day, according to the tides, and travelling twenty or thirty miles to 
suitable places for this purpose. Like other Ibises and Herons, the present species 
is fond of performing evolutions in the air, and is of powerful flight. 
The eggs are dull white, with a greenish tinge, spotted with reddish-brown. 
“2. Kudocimus ruber. 
The Red Curlew, Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carol. i. p. 84, t. 84°. 
Tantalus ruber, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 241%. 
[bis rubra, Dresser, Ibis, 1866, p. 32°. 
Guara rubra, A. O. U. Check-l. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 67 *. 
Eudocimus ruber, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 41°. 
Scarlatinus, scapis remigum dimidiatim albis; primariis quatuor externis ad apicem purpurascenti-nigris ; 
fronte basali, loris, regione faciali et gutture summo nudis carneo-rubris: rostro nigricanti-brunneo, ad 
basin carneo’; pedibus carneis. Long. tota 23-0, ale 9-8, caude 3:5, rostri 5-0, tarsi 3-9. (Deser. avis 
adulti ex Guiana. Mus. Brit.) 
Juv. Brunneus, dorso postico, uropygio et supracaudalibus albis; remigibus brunneis, intus albicantibus ; 
rectricibus brunneis, ad basin albis; pileo undique et gutture toto obscure albo striolatis, plumis albido 
marginatis ; corpore reliquo subtus cum subalaribus et axillaribus albis. 
Hab. Nortn America, Florida, Louisiana, and ‘Texas.—Mexico, ? Matamoros (fide 
Dresser *).—GuIANA®; VENEZUELA; AMAZONIA®; GREATER ANTILLES ©, 
The Scarlet Ibis is said to have occurred in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, but it 
is not included in the standard work on the Birds of North America of Messrs. Baird, 
Brewer, and Ridgway; and in the second edition of the ‘Check-list’ (1895) it is 
stated that the species has not been recently recorded from the United States, 
Mr. Dresser was assured that £. ruber had been seen at Matamoros, on the Rio Grande, 
during the winter months ; but no specimens were procured, neither has there been any 
confirmation of the Mexican habitat during the thirty-six years which have elapsed 
since he wrote. 
PLEGADIS. 
Plegadis, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 82 (1829); Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 29 (1898). 
This genus is closely allied to the preceding, the members of which have the tarsus 
plated in front, and a similar short tail, but the head in Plegadis is completely feathered 
and the plumage metallic. 
Three species are known: the Glossy Ibis (P. falcinellus), which is widely distri- 
buted over the Old World and occurs also in the Eastern United States; P. guarauna, 
ranging from the Southern United States over the greater part of the Neotropical 
Region and southward to Patagonia; and P. ridgwayi, of Peru and Bolivia. 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. III., January 1902. 25 
