WATER BIRDS. 



125 



Distribution. — Warmer parts of Eastern Hemisphere, West Indies, 

 and southern portions of eastern United States, wandering northward to 

 New England and Illinois. In America only locally abundant and of 

 irregular distribution. 



In Michigan this species can be considered only as a very rare straggler. 

 One was killed October 6, 1884 on a marsh near the shore of Saginaw Bay, 

 just west of Bay City. 

 Mr. Newell A. Eddy, 

 who got the specimen 

 for his own collection 

 says it is "a young bird, 

 without doubt, of the 

 year, wanting on the 

 head entirely and to a 

 considerable degree on 

 the back the beautiful 

 gloss and purple reflec- 

 tions of the adult bird" 

 (0. & O. X, p. 9). This 

 specimen, according to 

 Moseley, was at one time 

 in the Kent Scientific 

 Institute at Grand Rap- 

 ids, but I have failed ^to 

 identify it. In Novem- 

 ber, 1905, I examined 

 this collection carefully 

 and found two specimens 

 of the Glossy Ibis; one a 

 poorly mounted, imma- 

 ture specimen marked 

 "Grand Rapids, " and catalogued as No. 20189, but without other data; the 

 other the skin of a male in full plumage (Catalogue No. 22018) which prob- 

 ably came from the Gunn collection, but was without any data whatever. 

 Possibly the mounted specimen is the one taken near Bay City in 1884; 

 certainly there is no record of an additional capture at or near Grand 

 Rapids. According to Covert (MS. list 1894-95), the late D. D. Hughes 

 recorded another specimen taken at Marshall, Michigan. These cases 

 are the only ones known to me of the occurrence of this species in the state. 

 There are two records for Wisconsin, one for Ohio (Lake county, 1850), 

 and one or more for Illinois, but apparently none for Indiana. At Heron 

 Lake, Minn., it is said to occur singly or in pairs nearly every fall, and at 

 least once has been found nesting (Nidiologist, II, 116). ]\lcllwraith also 

 records the capture of two specimens near Hamilton, Out., in 1857 (Birds 

 of Ontario, 1894, 105). 



It is a wanderer from the tropics, where it breeds in swamps, building a 

 nest of the stems of marsh vegetation placed on reeds or low bushes, and 

 laying usually three dark blue unspotted eggs, averaging 2.05 by 1.41 

 inches. 



In regions where it is al)un(laiit it is one of the most striking features. of 

 bird life. It is found usually in flocks, sometimes of many hundreds, 

 which wade about fearlessly in the shallow water or through the open 

 marshes, their dark metallic plumage glistening in the sunlight, and their 

 quick motions and wheeling flight making a bird picture of unusual beauty. 



Fig. 31. Olossy Ibis. 



From' Baird, [Brewer and (Ridgway's Water Birds 'of North 



America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 



