NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 61 



earnest fashion, as though their fervor had to be kept at white heat all evening 

 long. Even now we could not really see the birds, save those few which occa- 

 sionally flew out to investigate us, or to search a feeding ground for the evening. 

 But it was strangely exciting to listen, and to picture in our minds what might 

 be going on in that dense hammock to the accompaniment of the weird notes we 

 were hearing As we drew near, masses of the birds took wing and drifted about, 

 soaring quite low for a time and gradually mounting higher and higher. Not 

 until we had come very close did we realize that a large proportion of the colony 

 was young birds, fully fledged but standing about on somewhat uncertain legs 

 and very hesitant to fly. They were droll creatures. They seemed aware of 

 our presence all the time but never turned their heads our way, seeming to pre- 

 fer to listen intently and jump off with much flapping and squaking at what they 

 considered the psychological moment. Many of them where standing on their 

 large, flat, whitewashed nests; but I believe they had long since forgotten their 

 own cradles and were standing about regardless of family relationships. Occa- 

 sionally one very near us would lose his balance, and, hanging by his neck and 

 toes, after much hideous noise and commotion would finally regain his perch or 

 flap away. On the heads of the full-fledged young the Juvenal feathering was 

 still apparent. Many of them stood about with open mouths — whether bellow- 

 ing or not. 



Plumages. — The downy young wood ibis is partially covered with 

 short, thick, wooly, white down; the front half of the head and the 

 spaces between the feather tracts are bare. I have never seen any 

 small juvenals, but Audubon (1840) says: 



The young are dusky-grey all over, the quills and tail brownish-black. The 

 head all covered with down, excepting just at the base of the bill. After the 

 first molt, the bare space extends over the head and cheeks; the downy feathers 

 of the hind head and neck are dusky; the general color of the plumage is white, 

 the quills and tail nearly as in the adult, but with less gloss. 



In the first winter plumage, which is worn without much change 

 until the first postnuptial molt, the posterior half of the head and 

 the whole neck is thinly covered with coarse, hairlike feathers, mixed 

 dusky, brown and whitish, darkest and longest on the occiput. The 

 body plumage is dull white. Some of the scapulars and tertials are 

 extensively tipped with dull brown and the rectrices and remiges are 

 brownish black with dull greenish reflections. Most of the imma- 

 ture birds that I have seen, taken from October to May fall into this 

 class, hence I think that the fully adult plumage must be assumed 

 at the first postnuptial molt in September and October, when the 

 young bird is 15 or 16 months old. However, the young bird is not 

 yet fully adult for some feathering still remains on the neck. The 

 scaly, bare head and neck of the old "flint head" are probably not 

 acquired for at least another year. Audubon (1840) says: 



The wood ibis takes four years in attaining full maturity, although birds of 

 the second year are now and then found breeding. This is rare, however, for 

 the young birds live in flocks by themselves, until they have attained the age of 

 about 3 years. They are at first of a dingy brown, each feather edged with 

 paler; the head is covered to the mandibles with short downy feathers, which 

 gradually fall ofl" as the bird advances in age. In the third year, the head is 

 92642— 26t 6 



