NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 31 



The ibis for their fondness of crayfish have about cleaned up the thousands of 

 acies of flooded marshes around Orange Lake and the other known fact that 

 crayfish destroy thousands of the spawn of fish and I have noticed that lakes and 

 ponds that have lakes and ponds around them and no ibis are nearly always 

 devoid of any great number of fish. Orange Lake has been fished with traps 

 continually, but with the thousands of ibis and herons that use the lake as a 

 reservation have kept the crayfish down to such an extent that there are more 

 fish to-day in Orange Lake than in many years. There are several thousand acres 

 of marsh around this lake and this has given the fish plenty of places to spawn. 

 As young fish eat millions of mosquitoes it stands to reason that with ibis and 

 herons we have more fish and less mosquitoes, and any bird that does so much 

 good to a State is of very great value and should be protected for that reason 

 alone. 



He reported that the contents of the stomachs of 50 young white 

 ibises contained 352 cutworms, 308 grasshoppers, 609 crayfish, and 

 42 small mocassins, an interesting bill of fare of a beneficial character. 



Mr. Wayne (1922) says, of the feeding habits of the young: 



Young white ibises, when able to take care of themselves, do not, as one would 

 suppose, seek the principal food of the adult birds, which is crayfish, but hunt 

 fiddlers in the canals and estuaries of the salt or brackish water marshes adjacent 

 to the fresh-water reservoirs. The reason for this habit is obvious since fiddlers 

 are easy to catch whereas crayfish would require more skill and dexterity. 



Behavior. — Tlie flight of the white ibis is strong, direct, and rather 

 swift, with rapid strokes of the wings and varied with occasional 

 shorter periods of sailing. When flying in flocks the birds flap their 

 wings or scale in unison, but the scaling or sailing periods are much 

 shorter than with pelicans or cormorants. On their morning and 

 evening flight they usually fly very low and in large flocks, close to 

 the water, over lakes, or along water courses, rising just over the tree 

 tops when necessary. The long curved bill, the pure white plumage of 

 the adults, with their black wing-tips, and the parti-colored plumage 

 of the young, are all good field marks, by which the species can eas- 

 ily be recognized at any reasonable distance. Occasionally a flock of 

 white ibises rises high in the air to indidge in interesting aerial evo- 

 lutions for sport or exercise. 



When frightened and forced to fly away from their feeding grounds 

 or nests, they are apt to alight in large numbers on some convenient 

 tree, preferably a large dead one with bare branches; they often 

 perch for long periods on such favorite trees; preening their plum- 

 age or dozing, standing on one leg, in an upright attitude, with the 

 head drawn down on the shoulders and the bill resting on the breast. 

 A large tree full of white ibises is a pretty sight, especially if there are 

 a few roseate spoonbills scattered among them, as is often the case. 



The white ibis walks gracefully on the ground and is active in its 

 movements; it also climbs nimbly among the branches of trees or 

 bushes, where it is quite at home. It can swim well if it happens to 

 fall into the water, but probably never does so from choice. 



