26o 



HHRUX TRIHK 



position are specially favoured in the matter of rare feathered visitors. 

 Formerly ibises were rei^arded as near relatives of the curlews, and are, 

 we believe, still called by that name in Norfolk. They differ, however, 

 widely in structure, as well as in the colourin^r of their plumai^e. from 

 these birds ; the only special resemblance between the two Ljroups 

 being the long sickle-shaped beak — a feature which cannot alone be 

 regarded as of any importance in indicating relationships. 



Together with the spoonbills the ibises form the third, and (so far 

 as Britain is concerned) last group of the Herodiones, which is dis- 

 tinguished from those respectively including the storks and the herons 



HE ROViLANO 



OLUSSY IBIS. 



\)y the slit-like form of the a[)crtures of the nostrils in the skull, the 

 presence of two notches on each side of the hind or lower border of 

 the breast-bone, and the prolongation of the hind extremity of the 

 lower jaw far beyond the point of its articulation with the skull in the 

 form of a long recurved process. In the latter feature ibises and 

 spoonbills resemble ducks and geese. 



Ibises form a family by themselves — the Ibididie — sufficiently 

 characterised by the downwardly curved, curlew-like beak. From the 

 more typical members of the family the glos.sy ibis differs in the 

 circumstance that the front of the shank of the leg is covered with 

 large transverse shield-like scales, instead of with a network of small 

 six-sided ones ; and likewise by the head of the adult, except for a 



