176 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Usually in mangrove 

 thicket; constructed from twigs of those bushes. Eggs: 

 ,? to 5. grayish-blue or whitish, blotched and spotted 

 with dull yellow, rufous, and umber-brown. 



Distribution. — North and South .America, from 



Lower California, Texas, and South Carolina south to 

 West Indies, Brazil, and Peru, and casually to Great 

 -Salt Lake, South Dakota, Illinois, Vermont, Connecti- 

 cut, and Long Island; winters from Gulf of Mexico 

 southward. 



Some years ago the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies purcliai^ed as a bird-reserva- 

 tion a [wrtion of Orange Lake, Florida, that con- 



Nis;jc^ 



Drawing by Henry iiiuiatua 



WHITE reiS (! nat. size) 

 A flock returning to their nests at evening is a pretty sight 



tains an island which has long been the breeding 

 place of innumeraljle water-birds. Those years 

 when the water is not too high to cover their 

 food White Ibises to the number of about nine 

 thousand pairs come here to breed, as do the 

 Egrets, Herons, and Water Turkeys that are 

 present every season. Their nests are budt in 

 the low alder trees that cover the island and are 

 placed at all heights from one to fifteen feet. 

 They are bulky and their weight added to that of 

 the heavy birds plays sad havoc with the branches. 

 The eggs are beautifully spotted; the young are 

 crested with black down. At times the trees are 

 so covered with White Ibises that at a distance 

 they appear to be weighted down with ;now. 



The birds, of course, have their natural ene- 

 mies. This island literally swarms with water 

 moccasins in summer. They take many of the 

 eggs and perhaps some of the newly hatched 



young. Vultures roost on the island and they 

 devour many young. The most annoying of all 

 the creatures that disturb the Ibises, however, 

 are the Fish Crows. Numbers of them are on 

 the island all day long and the quantities of eggs 

 they consume is astonishing. When the nest is 

 robbed these birds will lay again, and the Crows 

 keep them producing eggs for many weeks. The 

 warden in charge estimated that in the summer 

 of 191 3 every female Ibis laid an average of 

 eleven eggs, although four is the normal number 

 for a bird each season. 



These birds fly in long ranks and make a very 

 pretty sight when towards evening they begin 

 coming in from their feeding grounds which are 

 often many miles away. Low over the water to 

 avoid the wind they come into view, rank after 

 rank as far as the eye can see. With black-tipped 

 wings sweeping up and down with never a pause 

 the birds advance until near the island when 

 they rise in unison and scatter about among the 

 trees to spend the night. 



In the United States the White Ibis breeds 

 as far north as the swamp country of southern 

 Illinois and the rice regions of South Carolina. 

 I have seen them on the coast as far north as 



Phuto by T. H. Jauksun Courtesy of Nat. Asso. Aud. Soc, 



NEST AND EGGS OF WHITE IBIS 



At Orange Lake, Florida 



Beaufort, North Carolina, but only in the late 

 summer, and only then the immature birds who 

 exhibit the same wanderlust as the voung of some 



