866 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. - HERODIONES — IBIDES. 



bill blackish, reddening toward end; legs and feet dnsky-reddish ; claws blackish; iris red. 

 Length 2:^.00-24.00; extent 38.00-40.00; wing 10.00-11.00; tail 3.75-4.25; bill 5.00-5.50; 

 tibia? bare 2.50; tarsus 3.75; middle toe and claw 3.25; inner do. 2.50; onter do. 2.90; hind 

 do. 1.60. 9 similar, averaging smaller; length 21-50; extent 36.00, etc In this beautiful 

 «pecies, the feathers sweep down on forehead with regular convexity, nearly but not quite to 

 base of culmen, thence retreating around back of eye, wliich is wholly in bare skin, then run- 

 ning forward to a point on side of lower mandible ; retreating again, then running forward in 

 a point on middle line of chin, farther than on jaw or forehead ; there being thus enclosed, on 

 each side of head, a broad naked space, widest forward, narrowing behind to embrace eye ; and 

 between rami of jaw another bare space, forked behind to receive projecting feathers of chin, 

 not quite separated from bare loral space, because feathers on side of jaw stop a little short of 

 hard base of mandible. Young, first plumage (with traces of down still) : Remarkably lus- 

 trous. Plumage entirely green; legs black; bill blacki.sh, irregularly blotched or regularly 

 banded with pinkish- white. This green unieolor plumage, so-called thalassinus of liidgway, 

 is retained till full growth, gradually giving way through a brownish or grayish to the purple- 

 •chestnut and iridescent plumage. Chicks hatcli clothed in black down, with whitish bill. 

 Southwestern U. S., especially Texas; E. to Florida (breeding); N. to Kansas and Colorado; 

 W. through New Mexico and Arizona to California, Wyoming, Oregon, and casually to British 

 Columbia; Lower California; S. through tropical America. Swarming by thousands at some 

 points along the Rio Grande. Nests in vast ibiseries with various Herons, in beds of reeds and,"" 



Fig. cot. — White Ibis. (L. A. Fuertes.) 



rushes, rising in air by " hundreds of acres " when a gun is fired. Nest strongly and compactly 

 woven of dead reeds, affixed by twining to T)roken down or upright living ones, about a foot in 

 diameter and nearly as deep, well cupped, thus unlike the frail platform Herons build. Eggs 

 3-4, rarely 5, deep bluish-green, not elliptical, from 1.72 X 1-30 to 2.20 X 1-50, averaging 

 1.99 X 1-42. 



GUA'RA. (Vox barb., S. Am.) White and Scarlet Ibises. General character of 

 Plegudis. Face more denuded (whole chin bare in adults). Claws stout, obtuse, curved. 

 Plumage not metallic. Color white or red ; wings black-tipped. Eggs spotted. {Eudocimus 

 of 2d-4th eds. of Key. Guara Reich. 18.52.) 



O. al'ba. (Lat. white. Fig. 607.) White Ibis. "Spanish Curlew." Adult (J 9 : 

 Plumage pure white; tips of several outer primaries glossy black. Bare face, most of bill, 

 and legs orange, red, or carmine ; bill tipped with dusky ; iris pearly blue. Length about 

 26.00; extent 40.00; wing 11.50-12.50; tail 5.00; bill 5.00-7.00; tarsus 3.50; middle toe and 

 claw 2.50. Sexes alike; 9 averaging smaller. Young: Dull brown, rump, base of tail, and 

 under parts white; bare parts of head of less extent, yellowish, bill the same; legs bluish ; 

 iris brown. Younger: Dull brown all over, M'ith whitish rump and gray tail. S. Atlantic 

 And Gulf States, S. to West Indies and South America, N. to the Ohio, rarely to the IMiddle 



