174 BIRDS OF AMERICA 



long, and at the lower end coils approximately in the form of a figure eight, somewhat after 

 the manner of that of the Cranes. The common call is a harsh quack, and the birds often 

 make a clattering sound by snapping their mandibles together. 



As the Spoonbills differ from the Ibises in the peculiar structure of their bill, so the 

 Ibises are unlike the Storks, their close relatives, in the difTerentiation of the same organ, 

 which is evenly curved, somewhat slender, more or less cylindrical, and comparativel}' soft, 

 except at the tip, while that of the Storks is generally straight, rigid, and hard. Of the 

 eighteen or more members of the Stork family scattered over the warmer parts of the earth, 

 only one, the Wood Ibis, is regularly found in America north of the southern boundary 

 of the United States. 



Certain of the Ibis species are gregarious in the breeding season, while others are rather 

 solitary. The nests may be placed in low bushes, on trees, or occasionally among reeds, 

 or even in holes in ledges or clifYs. They are composed of plant-stems and sticks, and may 

 or may not be lined with straw, roots, or herbage. The eggs are from two to four in number 

 and may be greenish-blue, pale blue, olive-green, greenish-white, or sometimes brownish, 

 while some of the lighter-colored forms may show brownish or reddish markings. The 

 range of the Ibis is virtually cosmopolitan. About thirty species are known, and these are 

 referable to about twenty genera. About one-third of the species are of New World 

 occurrence. 



Remarkable variation in both proportions and coloration are shown in this family; 

 some species are graceful in their outlines and others are clumsy and uncouth, while plumage 

 colors range from neutral or dull tints to gaudy and brilliant hues. Most of the species 

 walk with marked grace and deliberation, while the flight is generally like though perhaps 

 rather more rapid than that of the Spoonbills. The Ibises' diet includes aquatic insects, 

 shellfish, moUusks, worms, small fish, frogs, grasshoppers, beetles, and lizards. In their 

 search for their food, when it is in the water, the birds sweep the bill to and fro, though 

 they also use it frequently for probing in mud or soft sand. 



The Ibis was one of the most sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians, and as such was 

 the subject of many myths and superstitions. Even to-day it is one of the characteristic 

 birds of the Nile valley, and in lower Egypt it is called Aboii-mcngel," Father of the Sickle," 

 the reference being, of course, to its curved bill. Herodotus credited the bird with being 

 a destroyer of snakes, and Cuvier recorded finding the remains of a reptile in the stomach 

 of a mummied Ibis, but it seems clear that such creatures do not form part of the bird's 

 normal diet. 



ROSEATE SPOONBILL 

 Ajaia ajaja {L'mmcus) 



A. O, U. Xunibtr 183 



Other Names. — Pink Curlew; Rosy Spoonbill. wings, tail, and abdomen: edge ot wing, dark brown. 



General Description. — Length, t,2 inches. Plumage, Three years are required to reach the perfect adult 



white with some pink or red. Adults have the head and plumage, 



throat bare. Nest and Eggs. — Nest: A platform of sticks in 



Color. — Upper neck and back, white, sometimes dense tropical marshes, usually in cypress trees or man- 

 tinged with pink ; wings and nndcr /'arts, delicate rose- grove bushes, from 8 to 20 feet above ground. Eggs : 

 madder; plumes of lower foreneck, lesser wing-coverts, 3 or 4, white or bufify, blotched and spotted with various 

 upper and under tail-coverts, rich carmine; shafts of shades of brown. 



wing- and tail-feathers, carmine: tail, brownish-yellow Distribution. — North and South .'Vmerica, from 



with a patch of same color on sides of breast: the skin Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia south to 



of the bald head varied with dull green, orange, and Patagonia and the Falkland Islands; formerly casual 



black: bill, with various shades of green, blue, yellow, north to Pennsylvania and the lower Ohio valley 



and black ; legs, lake red ; iris, carmine. Young: Head, (Indiana and Illinois'): accidental in California, 



feathered ; general plumage, white tinged with pink on Colorado, Kansas, and Wisconsin. 



