A Bird’s-Eye View 
articles of diet is the cray-fish, which often 
burrows from three to four feet into the mud, 
the material thrown out lying around the bur- 
row in the form of a mound. The device of 
the ibis to get hold of the animal is as simple 
as it is clever. It merely breaks up the mound 
of mud into little pieces, and throws them into 
the hole, and then moves back a step to await 
the consequences. The cray-fish at once sets 
to work to clear out the hole, and as soon as 
he reaches the surface with the obstruction, the 
watchful ibis snaps him up. 
The wood ibis, properly a stork, which feeds 
on fish, frogs, young alligators and water 
snakes, is equally clever in procuring a variety 
of diet in the easiest possible manner; for, 
going into shallow water where fish abound, it 
treads around until the water has become 
muddy, which brings the fish to the top. The 
stork, striking them sharply with its bill, kills 
them and leaves them floating at the surface 
for bait. In ten or fifteen minutes the various 
reptiles in the neighborhood are allured to the 
spot, whereupon the stork helps himself to 
whatever he likes. This is also chiefly a South- 
ern bird, only rarely coming as far North as 
New England. Like the night heron, it lives 
. SI 
