90 



North American Birds Eggs. 



This bird, witli its broad, flat bill, bare head, and rosj- plumage with carmine 

 epaulets and tail coverts, seem more like the fanciful creation of some artist 

 than a real l)irtl of flesh and blood. Its plumaire and colors are strikingly clear 



and beautiful. Full plumaged 



^ . adult birds have very brilliant 



~ carmine shoulders and tail c av- 



erts, a saffron colored tail, and a 

 lengthened tuft of bright rosj^ 

 feathers on the foreneck. This 

 species breed in small colonies 

 ' . . in marshy places, often in com- 

 , ' pany with herons "and ibises. 

 • , Their nests are rather frail plat- 

 forms of sticks, located m bush- 

 jf'J^ es or trees, from four to fifteen 

 ,;r feet from the ground. The eggs 



are laid during the latter part 

 of May and June. They are 

 three or four in number and 

 have a groundcolor of dull white, 

 or pale greenish blue and are 

 quite heavily blotched with several shades of brown. Size 2.50 x 1.70. . 



reenish blue. 



IBISES. Family IBIDID/E. 

 Ibises are gracefully formed birds having a long curved bill and a bare face. 



184. White ibis. Guara alba. 



Range.— This is a tropical and sub-tropical species which is found along the 

 Gulf coast, and north to South Carolina, west to Low-er California. 



These handsome birds are wholly 

 white, with the exception of black 

 primaries. The legs and the bare skin 

 of the face is orange red. These birds 

 are very abundant in most marshy lo- 

 calities along the Gulf coast, especially 

 in Florida, where they nest in rook- 

 eries of thousands of individuals. 

 Owing to their not having plumes, 

 they have not been persecuted as have 

 the white herons. They build their 

 nests of sticks and grasses, in the 

 mangroves a few feet above the water. 

 In other localities they build their 

 nests entirely of dead rushes, attach- 

 ing them to the standing ones a foot 

 or more above the surface of the water 



[Grayish.] 



They are quite substantially made and 

 deeply cupped, very different from the nests of the Herons. Their eggs are 

 from three to five in number, vary from grayish ash to pale greenish or bluish 

 in color, blotched with light brown. Size 2.25 x 1.60. The nesting season is 

 during May and June. Data.— Tampa Bay, Fla., June 4, 1895. 3 eggs. Nest 

 of sticks and a few weeds in small bushes on an island. Collector, Fred Doane 



