2l8 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



We were very much mystified by the small size of some 

 we shot. It may probably have been that they were hens, 

 but the circumstance is also noticed by Von Heuglin (Ibis, 

 1859, P- 346)- What made it remarkable was that they 

 were, with one exception, old crested birds with short dark 

 beaks, while the large-beaked specimens were immature. 

 The bill in the shortest I measured was 7yo* in the longest 

 9f, a marvellous difference. The tarsus in the shortest 5| ; 

 in the longest 7^. Captain Shelley gives the entire length 

 at 36 inches, but I have no doubt his system of measure- 

 ment is different from mine, as our biggest was only 29. 

 I measure from the forehead to the tip of the tail ; and per- 

 haps I ought to add, that wherever I give the length of a 

 bird it has been taken before it was skinned. Heuglin 

 (op. cit.) says the eye is yellow in the young, but in one 

 which I examined it was grey. Several specimens had the 

 thighs stained with buff, yet I never saw any wade above 

 the tarsus. 



I should think that the White Herons set down as Ardca 

 garsetta with a query by Dr. Adams were probably Spoon- 

 bills. 



A young Spoonbill in the Zoological Gardens used to 

 sit on its tarsal joints, with its feet raised an inch or two 

 into the air, so that no part of it but its knees (or ankles as 

 they are more correctly called) touched the ground. The 

 keeper told me that the Storks did the same. 



181. Glossy Ibis, Ibis falcinclhts, Linn. 



(29, Tririga autumnalis longirostris, Hasselquist) ; 



" Herres." 



On the 13th of 'April I saw a Glossy Ibis in the water- 

 course, which one has to cross in going to the Memnonium 



* In a young bird of the year shot at Yarmouth (Zool., 2871) it is 

 only 6.6. 



