84 WADING BIRDS. 



IBIS. (Ibis, Lacepede, Cuv. Tcmm.) 



In these birds the bill is long, slender, arched, thicker at the base, 

 the point depressed, obtuse, and rounded; upper mandible deeply 

 grooved its whole length ; the lower deeply channelled beneath. Nos- 

 trils basal, oblong, narrow, half closed by a membrane, situated in the 

 furrow. F«ce naked, and often also a part of the head and neck. Feet 

 middling, or slender, naked above the knee ; anterior toes webbed to 

 the first joint; the hind toe long and resting on the ground. Wings 

 moderate, the 1st primary nearly as long, or much shorter than the 2d 

 and 3d, which are longest. 



Species of the Ibis inhabit all quarters of the world. They fre- 

 quent the borders of rivers and lakes, where they are accustomed to 

 feed upon insects, crustacca, worms, and shell-fish, to which they 

 also, at times, add vegetables. But we may place amongst popular 

 fables, the reputation they have so long enjoyed of being great de- 

 stroyers of serpents, and venomous reptiles, which, in fact, they nev- 

 er touch. They migrate periodically to such distances, that the boun- 

 daries of the earth alone seem to set limits to their wanderings. The 

 moult is simple and annual. The sexes scarcely differ but in their 

 relative dimensions ; but the young differ in several respects from the 

 adult, particularly in the Scarlet, and some other species. 



SCARLET IBIS. 



(Ibis rubra, Vieill. Bonap. Tantalus ruber, Lin. Wilson, viii. p. 

 41. pi. 66. fig. 2. [adult.] Gwara, Marcgrave.p- 203. Buffon, vii. 

 p. 35. PI. Enlum. t. 81. Red Curlew, Catesby, i. p. 84. Lath. 

 iii. p. 106. Phil. Museum, No. 3864.) 



Sp. Charact. — Scarlet; outer quill -feathers glossy blue-black to- 

 wards their extremities ; face reddish. — Young cinereous ; back 

 and wings blackish ; rump and beneath white. 



This brilliant and exclusively American species, inhabits 

 chiefly within the tropics, abounding in the West India and 

 Bahama Islands, and south of the equator, at least, as far as 

 Brazil. They migrate in the course of the summer, (about 



