232 IBIDIDiE. 



The family of the Ibises, of which Plegadis forms a some- 

 what out-lying genus, has no real affinity to the Curlews, 

 with which, owing to a superficial resemblance in the shape 

 of the bill, it was formerly associated. On the contrary, 

 its relationship is with the Storks {Ciconiidce), and, more 

 closely, with the Spoonbills {Plataleiclce). The egg of the 

 Sacred Ibis is similar to that of the Spoonbill {cf. Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 449), and so are, probably, the eggs of the other typical 

 species ; but the members of the small group of which the 

 Glossy Ibis forms part, differ from the typical Ibises in 

 laying bluish-green eggs. 



As pointed out by Montagu, the Green, the Glossy, and 

 the Bay Ibis of authors, with the various systematic names 

 in use among ornithologists, refer only to various states of 

 the same bird, depending on age or season. The appearance 

 of the Glossy Ibis in this country, though not uncommon, 

 is still accidental ; and there is no evidence to show that 

 it ever bred in our islands. Lubbock, writing in 1845, 

 remarked that fifty years back it was seen in Norfolk, 

 often enough to be known to gunners and fishermen as the 

 ' Black Curlew ' ; but it was rapidly becoming rare ; and 

 although Mr. Stevenson enumerates eleven instances of its 

 occurrence between 1818 and 1833, yet since the latter date 

 only three have been met with in that county. It has also 

 been obtained in the neighbouring county of Suffolk. Two 

 were killed at Skegness, in Lincolnshire, in the autumn of 

 1881 ; and two have been obtained in the south-east of 

 Yorkshire. Selby mentions a young bird in his own collec- 

 tion, obtained on the Coquet near Rothbury, in the autumn 

 of 1820 ; and from this specimen the representation of the 

 Ibis published in some of the later editions of Bewick's 

 British Birds was taken. In Scotland it becomes still rarer, 

 and only six occurrences are on record ; the first being that 

 of an adult bird killed on the borders of the Loch of Kil- 

 conquhar, on the coast of Fife, in September 1842, by Mr. 

 Hepburn, who communicated the fact to the Author. About 

 the year 1844 one was shot near Banchory, in Kincardine- 

 shire, and its wings given to Macgillivray, who also mentions 



