456 IBIS 



J ■ Jr- ■ J^— -I-. 



•(u.^^'^ the y%. melanocephala of India, the fi. molucca, or ^ stridipennis, of 

 .TY<^ / Australia, and the ^.'bernieri of Madagascar, all of which closely 



resemble ^/'xthiopi'ca ; Avhile many other forms not very far re- 

 moved from it, though placed by authors in distinct genera,^ are 

 also known. Among these are several beautiful species such as the 

 Japanese Geronticus nippon, the Lophotibis cristata of Madagascar, and 

 the Scarlet Ibis,^ Eudocimus ruber, of America ; but here there is 

 only room to mention more particularly the Glossy Ibis, Flegadis 

 falcinellus, a species of very wide distribution in both hemispheres, 

 being found throughout the Antilles, Central and the south-eastern 

 part of North America, as well as in many parts of Europe (whence 

 it not unfrequently strays to the British Islands), Africa, Asia and 

 Australia. This bird, which is no doubt the second kind of Ibis 

 spoken of by Herodotus, is rather smaller than the Sacred Ibis, and 

 mostly of a dark chestnut or deep bay colour with brilliant green 

 and purple reflexions on the upper parts, exhibiting, however, 

 when young little of this glossiness. One of the most remarkable 

 things about this species is that it lays eggs of a deep sea-green 

 colour, having wholly the character of Herons' eggs, and it is to be 

 noticed that it often breeds in company with Herons, while the 

 eggs of all other Ibises whose eggs are known resemble those of 

 the Sacred Ibis. Congeneric with the Glossy Ibis, some three or 

 four other species, all from South America, have been described ; 

 but the propriety of deeming them distinct is questioned by some 

 authorities. 



Much as the Ibises resemble the Curlews externall}^, there is no 

 real affinity between them. The Ibididx are more nearly related to 

 the Ciconiidse (Stork), and still more to the Plataleidai (Spoonbill), 

 with which latter many systematists consider them to form one 

 group, the Hemiglottides of Nitzsch. They belong to the Pelargo- 

 morphse of Prof. Huxley, one of the divisions of his Desmognatha^, 

 while the Curlews are Schizognathous. The true Ibises above 

 spoken of are also to be clearly separated from the Wood-Ibises, 

 Tantalidse, of which there are four or five species, by several not 

 unimportant structural characters, which cannot here be particu- 

 larized for want of space. Fossil remains of a true Ibis, I. pagana, 

 have been found in considerable numbers in the middle Tertiary 

 beds of France. 



^ For some account of these may be consulted Dr. Reiclienow's paper in 

 Journ. fur Orn. 1877, pp. 143-156 ; Mr. Elliot's in Proc. Zool. Society, 1877, 

 pp. 477-510; and that of M. Oustalet in Nouv. Arch, dxi 3fus6um, ser. 2, i. 

 pp. 167-184. 



^ It is a popular error — especially among painters, as almost everj' annual 

 exhibition of the Royal Academy witnesses — that this bird was the Sacred Ibis 

 of the Egyptians. It was of course utterly unknown in the Old Woi'ld until the 

 discovery of the New. 



