ORALLATORES. 281 



extent of its range, but I may mention that I have seen a 

 specimen from Port Essington. 



Forehead dark brown, mottled with l)uff ; lores and line 

 behind the eye buff; back, sides, and front of the neck buff, 

 with a fine line of brown down the centre of each feather ; 

 all the upper surface blackish brown, with a series of tri- 

 angular spots round the margins of the feathers of a sandy 

 buff; shoulders, primaries, and secondaries blackish brown, 

 the latter with white shafts; rump and tail-coverts dark 

 brown, spotted with white on the margins ; tail greyish 

 brown, barred with black ; chin white ; under surface light 

 buff; flanks and under surface of the wing deep buff, 

 regularly barred with arrow-shaped marks of brown ; irides 

 black; bill fleshy at the base, olive-brown at the tip; feet 

 bluish flesh-colour. 



Total length 12 inches; bill Ij; wing 7; tail 3 ; tarsi If. 



Family TANTALID-ffi. 



Among other genera, Tantalus, Carphibis, Threskiornis, Fal- 

 cinelluSy Platalea, and Flatibis have been assigned to the 

 above family. By far the greater number of the species of 

 each of those genera, as well as others which it is not neces- 

 sary to enumerate, are denizens of the Old World. 



The three Australian Ibises pertaui, as will be hereafter 

 seen, to as many genera. 



The first or Straw-necked Ibis of the colonists — a very sin- 

 gular form, which stands alone — to CarpUbis; the second, 

 which has its representative in other countries, particularly in 

 Egypt (where it has lived from time immemorial, since it is the 

 species that was embalmed by the ancient Egyptians), to 

 Threskiornis ; and the third, a widely spread species found in 

 Australia, India, Africa, and Europe, and occasionally in the 

 British Islands, to Falcinellus. 



