419 



THE GLOSSY IBIS. 



IBIS FALCINELLTTS. 



Head dusky chestnut ; neck, breast, upper part of the back, and under parts, 

 bright chestnut-red ; rest of the upper plumage dusky, with bronze and pm-ple 

 reflections ; beak greenish black, tipped with brown : orbits green, edged with 

 grey ; irides brown ; feet greenish brown. Young birds have the head and 

 neck marked with numerous fine greyish white lines ; the plumage generally 

 is tinged with dusky brown and ash, and the metallic reflections are less 

 vivid. Length twenty-two inches. Eggs unknown. 



A RARE visitor to the British Isles, occurring at distant 

 intervals either as a solitary straggler or in flocks. Nothing 

 being known of its habits as observed in tliis country, 

 I must refer my readers for a detailed description to some 

 more comprehensive work. It is a bird of wide geogra- 

 phical range, being found both in ISTorth and South 

 America, the eastern countries of Europe, the greater part 

 of Asia, and aU the known regions of Africa. Its nest 

 and eggs are unknown. 



THE COMMON CURLEW. 



NUMENIUS ARQUATA. 



General plumage reddish ash, mottled with dusky spots ; belly white, with 

 longitudinal dusky spots ; feathers of the back and scapulars black, bordered 

 with rust-red ; tail white, with dark brown transverse bars ; upper mandible 

 dusky ; lower, flesh-colour ; irides brown ; feet bluish grey. Length varying 

 from twenty-two to twenty-eight inches. Eggs olive-green, blotched and 

 spotted with brown and dark green. 



Dwellers by the sea-side, — especially where the tide retires 

 to a great distance leaving a wide expanse of muddy sand, 

 or on the banks of a tidal river where the receding water 

 lays bare extensive banks of soft ooze, — are most probably 

 quite familiar with the note of the Curlew, however ignorant 

 they may be of the form or name of the bird from which 

 it proceeds. A loud whistle of two syllables, which may 

 be heard for more than a mile, bearing a not over-fanciful 

 resemblance to the name of the bird, answered by a similar 

 cry, mellowed by distance into a pleasant sound — wild, but 

 in perfect harmony with the <jharacter of the scene— 



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