48 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the four extremes measure 57.8 by 38, 57.5 by 43, 47 by 34, and 5G' 

 by 33.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Mr, Baynard's (1913) notes on the behavior and feeding 

 habits of young glossy ibises are well worth quoting in full, as follows: 



After 21 days had elapsed three of the eggs hatched. The same routine was- 

 carried on, however, as when they were incubating; the female doing most of 

 the covering, but both birds doing the feeding of the young. Until the young 

 were 5 days old one bird always stayed at the nest and it was at this period that 

 the last egg laid was hatched. I hardly expected it to hatch. This last hatched 

 bird was considerably smaller than the three others were at time of hatching and 

 always seemed to be more ^r less dwarfed until about time for them to leave the 

 nest, when there was little difference to be seen in the size, but lots of difference 

 in their activity, the last hatched one being the most active of the entire lot. 



The disposition of the young at all times in both nests was fine. All were 

 very active and restless after a week old, and at the age of two weeks would 

 not stay in the nest at all but stray out to the ends of the limbs of the bushes in 

 which the nests were placed, returning, however, to the nest to be fed, as I never 

 observed on any occasion the old one feeding the young any place but on the 

 nest. In this they differ from the white ibis, as they will feed the young wherever 

 they find them and seem to let the youngsters tyrannize over them. On several 

 occasions I noticed one or the other of the young when at the age of about 3 

 weeks try to make his parents come to him to feed him, but it never worked, a& 

 the old one would pay not the slighest attention to him, and when it looked as- 

 though the parent was through feeding and about ready to go away the young- 

 ster would give in and come climbing down to the nest, where the old would 

 treat him just as if he had been there all the time. I never noticed any of the 

 young fighting among themselves, like the herons will sometimes do, but at aU 

 times they acted like well-behaved children, the only exceptions being that the 

 three older birds would often take turns in trying apparently to swallow the last 

 hatched baby. He was sure a hardy scamp or he would never have lived through 

 the treatment he had to undergo. When the young are over 3 weeks old over 

 half the food of these glossy ibis would be moccasins. I kept a record of the 

 food by making the young disgorge after the old ones had fed them. This item- 

 ized record will appear further along. The manner of the glossy ibis in feeding 

 is to regurgitate the food up in the throat or mouth and for the young to put 

 his bill, and many times head, down the old one's throat and take his portion. 

 After one bird has been fed the second and third will get their turns, never longer 

 than three minutes apart and usually immediately. I have seen the three young 

 get two portions each in about seven minutes. Quick work this. They would 

 each get four to five portions at each visit of the parent; when young, however, 

 they would get as high as seven or eight turns. They would, of course, at this 

 tender age, be unable to take on a very large quantity, and it would also be in a 

 finer state of digestion, as many times I have seen the parent return from feeding 

 and stand around and caress the young and not offer to feed until an hour had 

 elapsed. This no doubt was to allow the food to digest to a point where the 

 young would be able to eat it. But after the young had reached the age of 2 

 weeks and more this was never necessary, as they could at that age take anything 

 from a portion of a half grown moccasin to a grown crayfish. At this age of the 

 young the meal, if a moccasin, would be disgorged into the nest, and being half 

 digested, be pulled into small enough portions to be capable of being swallowed 

 by the young, who would take this up from the nest themselves. In no other 

 instances did I ever see them pick up any food themselves until after they were 



