NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 53 



were well made and built Up of 10 or 12 inches above the water. 

 They were all made of coarse pieces of dead tules, the last year's 

 growth having been beaten down to form a foundation; they were 

 often deeply cupped and were lined with finer pieces of tules and with 

 grasses. Only a very few nests still held eggs, usually three. 



The interesting colony, found near Brownsville, Texas, many years 

 ago, described by George B. Sennett (1878) and Dr. J, C. Merrill 

 (1879), had long since disappeared; the swamp has been drained 

 and is now cultivated land. So far as I could learn there are now 

 no ibises breeding in that section of Texas. Doctor Merrill's (1879) 

 account of it is as follows: 



On the 16th of May, 1877, Mr. G. B. Sennett and I visited a large patch of 

 tule reeds growing in a shallow lagoon, about 10 miles from the fort, in which 

 large numbers of this ibis and several kinds of herons were breeding. The reeds 

 covered an area of perhaps 75 acres or less, growing in water 3 or 4 feet in depth 

 Irregular channels of open water traversed the reeds here and there, but the bot- 

 tom was comparatively firm, and there was little difficulty in wading in any di- 

 rection. Besides the ibises, the great and little white egrets, Louisiana and night 

 herons, and several other birds were breeding here. Often nests of all these 

 species were placed within a few feet of each other, but there was a tendency to- 

 ward the different kinds forming little nesting groups of 10 or 15 pairs. The 

 reeds grew about 6 feet above the surface of the water, and were either beaten 

 down to form a support for the nests, or dead and partly floating stalks of the 

 previous years were used for that purpose. It was impossible to estimate the num- 

 ber of the ibises and different herons nesting here. On approaching the spot 

 many would be seen about the edges of the lagoon or flying to or from more dis- 

 tant feeding grounds, but upon firing a gun a perfect mass of birds arose, with a 

 noise like thunder, from the entire bed of reeds, soon to settle down again. Both 

 nest and eggs of the ibises were quite unlike those of any of the herons, and 

 could be distinguished at a glance. The nests were made of broken bits of dead 

 tules, supported by and attached to broken and upright stalks of living ones. 

 They were rather well and compactly built, and were usually well cupped, quite 

 unlike the clumsy platforms of the herons. The eggs were nearly always three 

 in number, and at this date were far advanced in incubation; many nests con- 

 tained young of all sizes. 



George Willett and Antonin Jay (1911) visited a large breeding col- 

 ony of white-faced glossy ibises in San Jacinto Lake, in Riverside 

 County, California, on May 28, 1911, which they describe as follows: 



In nearly every patch of tules was a nest or two of this species, and in the 

 patch farthest west which coveied about a half acre, there must have been at 

 least 200 nests. They were built on bent down tules, and were composed of 

 tule stalks and lined with marsh grass. They were situated from 2 to 6 feet 

 above the water, the average height being ^bout 4 feet. About half the nests 

 examined contained young and most of the others held badly incubated eggs. 

 A very few fresh sets were found but the height of the nesting season was past. 

 The sets almost invariably consisted of three or four eggs. In one or two in- 

 stances sets of two incubated eggs were noted and three nests contained five 

 eggs each, two nests six eggs each, and one nest had seven. It is probable that 

 sets numbering more than five eggs were deposited by more than one bird. In 

 fact they invariably showed two different types of eggs. The color of the eggs 



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