262 BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



or three eggs on the ground, the young running about as 

 soon as they leave the shell. 



Their diet consists mainly of fish, but they will also eat 

 offal and various reptiles and small mammals. 



THE IBIS. 



Family — Plataleidce. 



Genus — Gcrontiais. G. calva. 



Bald-Headed Ibis. — This well-known bird is a visitor to 

 "Egypt, where it occurs in considerable numbers during the 

 rainy season, departing wlien the gradual subsidence of 

 the river deprives it of the food it collects in the shallow 

 water, namely, frogs, shell-fish, and aquatic insects. 



It is a curious fact that in feeding their offspring the old 

 birds swallow, so to speak, the bill and head of the young, 

 and then disgorge into the gaining mouth of the latter 

 the food it had itself previously taken. 



The colour is for the most part white, of a glossy kind, 

 but some of the secondaries, wliich are much elongated, 

 fall over the sides of the back, and are black and shin- 

 ing. 



Another species, or variety, known as the Glossy Ibis, 

 has the head, neck, and upper part of the back of a dark 

 chocolate colour ; the wing coverts are glossed with purple, 

 the primaries with green, and the tail with purple. The 

 under parts are chocolate brown ; the naked space round 

 the eyes is green, and so are the legs and feet. 



The young birds are mottled irregularly. 



