34 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



America and in Cuba require confirmation. Within the borders of 

 the United States it is accidental and its claim to a place on our 

 check list rests for the most part on questionable evidence. 



Wilson (1832) states that it was found in the most southern parts 

 of Carolina and also in Georgia and Florida, but he does not say 

 upon what evidence his statements are based. He remarks that be- 

 ing a scarce species with us, a sufficient number of specimens had 

 not been procured to enable him to settle the matter with certainty. 



Nuttall (1834), adding Alabama to the range of the species, says 

 " they migrate in the course of the summer (about July and August) 

 into Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina"; but he, too, is 

 silent as to the source of his information. 



Audubon (1840) remarks that he had seen only three in the United 

 States, on the 3d of July, 1821, at Bayou Sara, Louisiana. He writes: 



They were traveling in a line, in the manner of the white ibis, above the tops 

 of the trees. Although I had only a glimpse of them, I saw them suflBciently 

 well to be assured of their belonging to the present species, and therefore I have 

 thought it proper to introduce it into our Fauna. 



Dr. Elliot Coues (1865) mentions the scarlet ibis as being found 

 on the Rio Grande, and later (1872) speaks of having examined a 

 fragment of a specimen at Los Pinos, New Mexico. Many years 

 afterward he assured Prof. W. W. Cooke (1897) that tlxere was no 

 question of this. 



William Brewster (1883) found a specimen in the Museum of the 

 College of Charleston, said to be from Florida, which he believed to 

 be authentic, but the chain of evidence is hardly sufficient. 



A record that has stood for many years is that of Willoughby P. 

 Lowe ( 1894) who gave an account of a bird supposed to be a scarlet 

 ibis, shot by one of a party that was duck shooting in May, 1876, at 

 Grape Creek in Wet Mountain Valley, Custer County, Colorado. 

 The specimen was preserved and later came into possession of Mr. 

 Livesey. Prof. W. W. Cooke ( 1897) considered this account as trust- 

 worthy, but Alfred M. Bailey of the Colorado Museum of Natural 

 History writes me that J. D. Figgins, who had occasion to trace the 

 data on this bird, had secured the specimen from England and that 

 it proved to be an unusually colored, white-faced glossy ibis. Mr. 

 Figgins (1925) has recently published a statement to this effect. 

 This specimen is now in the collection of the Colorado Museum of 

 Natural History. 



Walter Faxon (1897) considered the presence of a plate of the 

 scarlet ibis among the drawings of Georgian birds by John Abbot 

 as very good evidence of the species having occurred in that State; 

 but the species could hardly be admitted to our check list on such 

 testimony. 



