36 BULLETIX 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Past the dark green background of mangrove foliage the magnificent bird flew 

 swiftly — flaming with a brilliance which shamed any pigment of human art. 

 Blood red, iatensest vermilion, deepest scarlet — -all fail to hint of the living 

 color of the bird. Before we could recover from our delight a flock of 20 fol- 

 lowed, flying close together, with bills and feet scarlet like the plumage. They 

 swerved from their path and alighted on the mud close to the mangroves, and 

 began feeding at once. Th3a a trio of snowy-whibe egrets with trailing plumes; 

 floated overhead; others app-3 ire i above thetop? of the trees; a host of sandpipers 

 skimmed the surface of the water and scurried over the flats. Great Cocoi herons 

 swept majestically into viev\^; curlews and plover assembled in myriads, lining the 

 mud flats at the water's edge, while here and there, like jets of flame against the 

 mud, walked the vermilion ibises. 



Courtship. — Apparently very littlo is known of the courtship of tlie 

 scarlet ibis. Charles L. Bull (1911) is the only one, so far as I know, 

 who has had anything to say about it. He writes of a pair of captive 

 birds : 



He began bowing and shaking his wings, and dancing up and down before her 

 with spread wings and fluffed shoulders and crest. For a few moments slie 

 paid no attention, then something stirred within her and she shyly pecked at 

 him. At this he danced harder than ever, and soon she joined him, dancing as 

 he danced, bowing as he bowed, shaking out her wings and yammering as he 

 did. 



Mr. Bull confirmed the above in a letter to me, in which he says: 



The courtship antics are my own observation. There were a number of scarlet 

 ibis in the Bronx Zoo when I lived for two years near its entrance. They were 

 kept in the big flying cage an.d not long after they were put out in the spring I 

 watched a pair going through the dancing and raising of the scapulars, bowing, etc. 

 The male was most attentive, offering the other bits of food and making the curious 

 yammering (I have no other words for it) sound, opening and closing the bill rapidly. 

 They carried a few sticks about but to the best of my knowledge went no further; 

 too many other birds trying to do the same thing. 



Nesting. — The breeding season of the scarlet ibis does not come at 

 the same time of the year in different parts of its range, but the 

 choice is apparently the season of heavy rains. 



In Surinam they breed diu-ing the so-called "big rainy season" which 

 begins about the end of April and lasts until the middle of August. 

 W. C. van Hcurn (1912), however, also mentions February as the 

 time. 



Edwards (1847) says that they appear on the island of Marajo at 

 the mouth of the Amazon in June and at once set about forming 

 their nests. He also remarks that according to Captain Appleton 

 the breeding season on Marajo is February. 



August Kappler (1887) says that the scarlet ibis builds its artless 

 nest of brush in inaccessible places on low trees (Kappler, 1854), that 

 the eggs are laid in the rainy season in May and June. 



Richard Schomburgk (1848) says that they use the nests several 

 seasons in succession. 



