of the Siraw-necki'd Ibis. 189 



appetite of the nestlings ; and since there are probahly more 

 than 200,000 mouths to fill, some little idea ean be formed 

 of the immense utility of these birds in destroying that 

 settler's scourge, the grasshopper or locust. 



Platching takes place in the order in which the eggs are laid, 

 that is every other day, so that in nests on the same bush 

 there may be noticed one young bird and two eggs, or two 

 young and one egg, as the ease may be (see fig. 19, p. 188) ; 

 the little things grow ver}^ rapidly, and the down with which 

 they are covered is black. For the first few days they seem 

 to have the curious habit of waving their heads from side to 

 side, as all those seen were doing so. The parents feed them 

 with partially digested food, and it is an interesting sight to 

 see the various companies of adults going to and returning 

 from some favourite feeding-ground, the male and female 

 birds relieving each other in the duty. Occasionally a flock 

 will soar to a great height before leaving, and ean just be 

 seen with the naked eye as the individuals circle aloft in the 

 clear azure sky. When the young are about a week old 

 they are able to move freely upo7i the platform on which 

 their nests are built, and ii: disturbed, all huddle up on the 

 far side, whence they readily take to the water and swim to a 

 neighbouring bush. It is most astonishing to see how they 

 climb and scramble through the tough lignum, freely using 

 their wings, beak, and claws for those purposes, while they 

 either put the beak over some higher branch to help them- 

 selves up, or catch hold of a bough with it for the same 

 object. How the parents can find their own young when 

 they are mixed up with hundreds of others, I cannot say. 



The nestlings are easily reared in captivity if taken when 

 nearly fledged, and soon become very tame and tiaetable. 

 The amount of food the adults and young consume must be 

 immense, as the contents of an average stomach were found 

 to be 2410 young grasshoppers, several caterpillars, five 

 freshwater snails, and nine little pieces of gravel, as well as 

 a few small bones, weighing in all 4^ oz. Thus the stomachs 

 of 200,000 adult birds would contain about 482,000,000 

 young grasshoppers, besides a large number of caterpillars. 



