7. UERONTICUS. 17 



green witli slight purple reflections ; lesser wing-coverts like the 

 back ; median coverts glossy bronze, with green bases and an inter- 

 mediate shade of purple ; greater coverts, quills, and tail-feathers 

 black, glossed with dark green ; crown of head bare, " greenish 

 black, with a median hourglass-shaped patch of orange " ; sides of 

 face and throat also bare ; on the hind-neck and sides of neck a 

 frill of elongated narrow plumes, wliich are greenish black like the 

 rest of the under surface ; under tail-coverts more distinctly glossed 

 with green ; under wing-coverts black, with a steel-green gloss : 

 "bill and feet red; iiis rufous" {von Heuglin) : '-iris orange'' 

 {H. E. Wldte). Total length about 30 inches, culmen o-4, wing 16, 

 tail 7'4, tarsus 2'6. 



Adult female. Does not differ from the male in colour. Total 

 length 22 inches, culmen o, wing 15'5, tail 7, tarsus 2-6. 



Young. Diti'ers from the adults in having the head feathered and 

 covered with grey down, the feathers being ashy whitish streaked 

 with black. The rest of the plumage very similar to that of the 

 adults, but with purple edges to the feathers of the upper surface, 

 while there is no sign of the coppery wing-patch of the adult. 



Hah. The same as that of the genus. 



a. Head of adult. Mogador. Howard Saunders, Esq. 



[P.]. 



b. 5 ad. sk. Aiu Tarsilt Pass, Interior Herbert E. "\N hite, 



of Marocco *. Esq. [P.]. 



c. Juv. sk. Tunis. Mr. L. Eraser [C.]. 



d. Ad. sk. Suakin, Red Sea. Capt. R. H. Penton 



[P.]. 



e. $ ad. sk. Antalo, Tigr(5, Abyssinia, \\ . T. Blanford, Esq. 



TOOOfeet, Mavli, 1868. [C.]. 



f. Ad. St. Abyssinia. Ur. Riippell [C.]. 



7. GERONTICUS. t, 



Type. 



Geronticus, 7f agler, Ists, 1832, p. 1:232 G. calvus. 



Ra-)U)e. Confined to South Africa. 



1 . Geronticus calvus. 



L'Ibis, Briss. Orn. v. p. 347 (17C0). 



Gourly a tete nue du Cap de Bonne Esp^rance, Daiibent. PI. Enl. viii. 



pi. 867. 

 LTbis noir, Bvff. Hist. Nat. Ois. viii. p. 17 (1781). 

 Black Ibis, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. pt. 1, p. 112 (1785). 

 Bald Ibis, Lath. t. c. p. 116 (1785). 

 Tantalus calvus, Boeld. Tab!. PL Enl. p. 52 (1783). 

 Tantalus niger, Gm. S. N. i. p. 650 (1788) ; Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 707 



(1790). 

 Ibis calva, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xvi. p. 23 (1817) ; Waghr, 



iSiist. Av., Ibis, p. 372, sp. 11 (1827) ; id. IsL^, 1829, p. 761; Schl. 



Mas. Pai/s-Bas, Ibis, p. 11 (1863) ; Reichen. J.f. O. 1877, p. 149. 

 Ibis gonocepbala, Wagler, Isis, lt<29, p. 761. 



* Nesting in a hole of a cliff, about 50 feet high. 



