Ibises 



lew, enables the bird to drag out the crayfish from its shell and 

 pinch the last piece of flesh from soft-shelled crustaceans. Small 

 fish, frogs, lizards, and other aquatic animal food never seem to 

 fatten this slender bird, that is a ravenous feeder none the less. 



Colonies of ibises build nests in ancestral nurseries, which 

 may be in reedy marshes, or in low trees and bushes not far from 

 good feeding grounds. Three to five pale greenish eggs marked 

 with chocolate are found in the coarse, bulky nest of reeds and 

 weed stalks. 



154 



