24 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a big breeding rookery in Victoria County. Somewhere in the valley 

 of the Guadalupe River, we had heard, was a colony of this species. 

 With the help of what local talent we could find, we explored the 

 swamp and bayou forests along the river, where the large cypress, 

 tupelo, gum, water oak, and magnolia trees were draped in long fes- 

 toons of Spanish moss; we skirted the borders of numerous lakes and 

 open marshes; and we penetrated the dense marshy thickets of wil- 

 low.-^, button-bushes, huisache, and other brush, wading through miles 

 of muddy water and fighting our way through thorny tangles. Fre- 

 quently we saw the ibises flying over us, but always they went on beyond 

 us to some distant point, tolling us on and on, deeper and deeper into 

 the recesses of an immense tract of endless swamps, streams, and ponds. 

 By taking observations from the tops of the highest trees we could 

 find, we finally got their bearings from several directions and located 

 their rookery about 3 miles away. Apparently their feeding grounds 

 were scattered all over this big tract, in the more open marshes and 

 meadows. Birds were constantly fl}nng to and fro between their 

 feeding grounds and their breeding rookery, but towards dark their 

 movements were all in the direction of the latter. We eventually 

 found the rookery, to which I shall refer later. 



Courtship. — I have never seen the courtship of this species, nor 

 can I find anything about it in print. As the breeding season ap- 

 proaches, the bill, face, gular pouch, and legs of the male, which at 

 other seasons are dull flesh color, become deep, brilliant red in 

 color and form a striking contrast with the white plumage. Evi- 

 dently a decided distention of the gular pouch forms an important part 

 of the nuptial display. Audubon (1840) says: ''The males at this 

 season have the gular pouch of a rich orange color, and somewhat 

 resembling in shape that of the frigate pelican, although proportion- 

 ally less." C. J. Pennock refers to this twice in his notes sent to 

 me on the habits of this species in Florida. On April 1, 1917, the 

 birds were apparently mating and wore indulging in a series of out- 

 landish noises; watching them at a distance of 40 or 50 feet, with a 

 pair of good glasses, it appeared that the males distended the gular 

 pouch to the size of "a good-sized lemon" and contracted it again 

 as they uttered "their dulcet notes"; he describes the color of it as 

 "rich deep vermilion or Turkey red." Again on May 2y, 1917, he 

 observed another bird, within 20 feet, make a similar display and 

 estimated that the pouch extended about an inch and a half below 

 the bill, "fiery red in color, the bill, face and legs being of the same 

 color." 



Nesting. — ^Audubon (lcS40) gives a description of an interesting 

 colony which he found on an island 6 miles from Cape Sable, Florida. 

 Besides the ibises there were — 



