NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 63 



vultures, and thus remain for an hour or so. Besides the great quantity of fishes 

 that these ibises destroy, they also devour frogs, young alligators, wood rats, 

 young rails and grakles, fiddlers and other crabs, as well as snakes and small 

 turtles. They never eat the eggs of the alligator, as has been alleged, although 

 they probably would do so, could they demolish the matted nests of that animal, 

 a task beyond the power of any bird known to me. I never saw one eat any- 

 thing which either it or some of its fellows had not killed. Nor will it eat an ani- 

 mal that has been dead for sometime, even although it may have been killed by 

 itSflf. When eating, the clacking of their mandibles may be heard at the dis- 

 tance of several hundred yards. 



Grinnell, Bryant and Storer (1918) record the stomach contents of 

 three wood ibises taken in Imperial County, California; one contained 

 3 tadpoles, 4 water beetles, 2 paddle bugs, and some moss and slime ; 

 another, 9 tadpoles, a water beetle, 9 dragon fly larvae, and a carp; 

 and the third held 10 carp, a catfish, 2 bony tails (fish) and a water 

 cricket. Another bird from the same region examined by Dr. Harold 

 C. Bryant (1919) had in its stomach 10 seeds of the screw bean, 2 seeds 

 of mesquite, parts of 4 water beetles and some finely comminuted 

 vegetable material. 



Behavior. — In flight the wood ibises are splendid birds and one 

 never tires of watching them, as they fly along in flocks, high over 

 the tree tops flapping their long wings or scaling at intervals, all in 

 perfect unison. Even more interesting are the spectacular aerial 

 evolutions in which these birds so often indulge. Rising in a flock, 

 they soar in wide circles, mounting higher and higher, crossing and 

 recrossing in a maze of spirals, until they are almost beyond vision 

 in the ethereal blue. Then suddenly they dash downward and repeat 

 the operation or else drift aw^ay on motionless wings until lost to 

 sight. They are easily recognized at a great distance, great white 

 birds with jet black flight feathers, with long necks and heavy bills 

 and with long legs extended far beyond their short black tails. 



Distance lends enchantment to this species; the sign of the cross, 

 so boldly written in black and white on the distant sky, one stands 

 and admires; but not so with the awkward, ungainly fowl that we 

 see perched on a tree in a hunched-backed attitude of uncouth indo- 

 lence. Its behavior on the ground is well described by Doctor Coues 

 (1874) as follows: 



The carriage of the wood ibis is firm and sedate, almost stately; each leg is 

 slowly lifted and planted with deliberate precision, before the other is moved, 

 when the l)irds walk unsuspicious of danger. I never saw one run rapidly, since 

 on all the occasions when I have been the cause of alarm, the bird took wing 

 directly. It springs powerfully from the ground, bending low to gather strength, 

 and for a little distance flaps hurriedly with dangling legs, as if it was much 

 exertion to lift so heavy a body. 



Wood ibises are among the wariest of birds. Even on their breed- 

 ing grounds it is usually difficult to approach them; when they first 

 rise from their nests they may circle once around the intruder and 



