NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 45 



But at first he would not eat, and simply ignored the choicest viands put before 

 him. Then I had to resort to forcible methods and even so he persistently re- 

 jected food of all kinds, including fish and prawns. On the fourth day when I 

 was on the point of considering the case hopeless, he, mirabile dictu, retained a 

 piece of banana I had given him almost in despair. After that he retained nearly 

 all the food I gave him and would even open his beak to submit to the process 

 of feeding. On the twelfth day I saw him helping himself to bread and milk 

 from the pan. Finally he seemed to prefer this diet to anything else. He was 

 by this time quite accustomed to the altered conditions of his life; he would stand 

 for hours in the trough of water, sunning himself and shaking his wings, or he 

 would walk about prodding the sand for possible crabs. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Northern South America. East to the coast of Venezuela, 

 (mouth of the Orinoco River); Trinidad; British Guiana (Waini and 

 Berbice Rivers); French Guiana (Georgetown, Cayenne); eastern 

 Brazil (Counany River, mouth of the Amazon River and Para). 

 South to the southern coast of Brazil (Sao Paulo Iguape, and Para- 

 nagua). It apparently does not breed in the interior. North to the 

 coast of Venezuela (Puerto Cabello, Lake Valencia, and Margarita 

 Island) . 



Breeding ran^'g.— Northern and eastern South America from Vene- 

 zuela to the mouth of the Amazon. Nesting has been reported from 

 Trinidad (Leotaud) ; Surinam: Germina flats, Via-via flats, Motkreek 

 (F. P. and A. P. Penard); Brazil; Marajo, Cavianna (Hagmann), 

 and Jungcal (Edwards). 



Casual records. — Probably it has occurred casually, when driven by 

 severe storms, in the West Indies and on the Gulf coasts of Louisiana 

 and Texas, but all of the records are more or less unsatisfactory and 

 generally not substantiated by specimens with authentic data. The 

 United States records are explained in the early part of the life his- 

 tory. 



Egg dates. — Dutch Guiana: 52 records. May 2 to July 10; 26 

 records. May 2 to June 4. 



PLEGADIS FALCINELLUS (Linnaeus; 



GLOSSY IBIS 



HABITS 



The status of the glossy ibis, as a North American bird, is a puz- 

 zling problem, which it is difficult to solve with our present limited 

 knowledge. It is widely distributed and well known in the tropical 

 and subtropical regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, but in this hemi- 

 sphere it seems to have a very limited breeding range, in which it is 

 rare, and to occur elsewhere only as a straggler. It is known to breed 

 in very limited numbers in Florida and Cuba, probably in Jamaica 

 and possibly in some of the other West Indies. There are numerous 



