122 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Provinces, breeding in its entire range. Like the last, it inhabits reedy 

 swamps and marshes where the quagmire abounds with a luxuriant growth 

 of rushes, which is also the home of the Rails. The nest is placed on the 

 ground or in the midst of the rankest grass, or in a bush; It is simply a 

 platform of dead rushes. When this little bird is standing on the edge 

 of a stream, with its neck drawn in, it is often taken for a woodcock; the 

 long bill giving it this appearance. 



500. Wood Ibis — tantalus loculator. Chalky-white, sometimes 

 spotted with pale reddish-brown, somewhat elliptical; the shell is rough, 

 with a flaky substance ; two or three eggs are laid ; but almost inva- 

 riably three; size from 2.70 to 2.75 long by 1.70 to 1.75 broad. 

 The y\merican Wood Stork or Colorado Turkey, as it is sometimes 

 called, inhabits the South Atlantic and Gulf States north to the 

 Carolinas and across in corresponding latitudes to the Colorado 

 River, where it is abundant ; it is found as far up the Mississippi 

 as Southern Illinois; casually straying to Pennsylvania and New York. 

 An abundant resident of the Southern States where it frequents thickly 

 wooded swamps and bayous, breeding in large communities, placing the 

 nest in high trees. It is a platform composed of sticks loosely arranged. 



501. White Ibis — eudocimus albus. Ashy-blue, spotted and blotched 

 irregularly with yellowish, reddish and umber-brown of varying shades; 

 two or three in rhumber, and measure about 2.25 by 1.60. The White Ibis 

 or Spanish Curlew is distributed in summer throughout the South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States from the Carolinas southward. Stragglers wander even as 

 far north as New England. It winters in Florida. This Ibis breeds in 

 communities by thousands in the tangled marshes of the southern coast; 

 fastening the nest to broken down or upright living reeds ; it is composed 

 of reeds compactly woven together, is deep and much hollowed, which is 

 unlike the frail platform nests of the Herons. 



502. Scarlet Ibis — eudocimus ruber. Bluish, covered with white 

 calcareous deposit, oval; two eggs are generally laid ; size about 3.25 by 2. 

 This beautiful bird inhabits South America and the West Indies and is 

 accidental in the United States. It nests on the ground in marshy places. 



503. Glos.sy Ibis — plegadis falcinellus. Deep greenish-blue, unspot- 

 ted ; the number of egss laid is two, three or four ; size from 1.85 to 2. 1 5 long 

 by 1.38 to 1.50 broad. This Ibis is found occasionally anywhere east of 

 the Mississippi River, especially southerly, sometimes straying north to 

 Massachusetts and Ohio. There is probably only one record of its being 



