Note on the Breeding of the Sacred Ibis. 449 



from that bird. Not only is the general bulk of Osculatia more 

 slender than that of Geotrygon, but its tarsi are much longer 

 in proportion to its size, the tail is much shorter, and the 

 outer primaries much reduced in width towards the end, 

 instead of each being a broad feather with a uniformly curved 

 edge to the inner web. All the members of Geotrygon have 

 uniformly coloured tails ; and in having ashy tips to its rec- 

 trices Osculatia approaches Leptoptila. Indeed it seems, as 

 Bonaparte says, to occupy an intermediate position between 

 Leptoptila and Geotrygon. 



Bonaparte's plate does but scant justice to the extreme 

 beauty of 0. sapphirina. This and the bird now described 

 are by far the most lovely of South-American Pigeons. The 

 head of 0. sapphirina is white on the forehead, which colour 

 gradually shades into grey on the occiput, which again passes 

 into metallic green towards the nape, and then to bronze on 

 the hind neck and upper back. As already stated, O. pur- 

 purata has the forehead white, the top of the head and nape 

 being of a very dark rich purple. 



XXXVI. — Note on the Breeding of the Sacred Ibis in the Zoo- 

 logical Society's Gardens. By P. L. Sclater. 



(Plate XII.) 



The Sacred Ibis being naturally a bird of much interest to 

 the readers of this Journal, some notes on the breeding of 

 this species, concerning which few details'^ appear to have 

 been hitherto recorded!, may not be unacceptable. 



The Sacred Ibis {Ibis cethiopica) is a bird which does well 



* Heuglin (Orn. N.O.-Afr. ii. pp. 11, 38) speaks of the breeding-places 

 of this bird on the flooded islands and river-banks of the Eastern Soudan, 

 and correctly describes the eggs. He was not himself able to ascend to 

 the nests, which are placed on high trees in large colonies. 



t In our * Nomenclator ' Mr. Salvin and T (following Vieillot) have 

 iised Ibis for the American group of 1. alba and I. rubra. But Ibis 

 was applied by Savigny in 1810 to the Sacred Ibis, before Vieillot used 

 it for the former group, for which, consequently, Eiidoci^nus of Wagler is 

 the correct term. Cf. Elliot, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 482. 



