282 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus CARPHIBIS, Reichenhach. 



Of this form the single species known is confined to Au- 

 straHa, and must ever rank among the most beautiful and 

 remarkable members of its family. 



Sp. 538. CARPHIBIS SPINICOLLIS. 



Straw-necked Ibis. 



New Holland Ibis, Lath. Gen. Hist, of Birds, vol. ix. p. 167. 



Ibis spinicollis, Jameson, Edinb. New Phil. Journ., No. xxxvii. p. 213. 



lathami, Gray. 



lamellicollis, LaFres. Mag. de Zool., 1836, liv. 4""" et 5'"'', pi. 57. 



Geronticus spinicollis, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 566 ; 

 Geronticus, sp. 3. 



Geronticus spinicollis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi. pi. 45. 



This beautiful Ibis has not I believe been discovered out of 

 Australia, over the whole of which immense country it is pro- 

 bably distributed ; its presence, however, in any particular lo- 

 cality appears to depend upon whether the season be or be 

 not favourable to increase of the lower animals upon which 

 the vast hordes of this bird feed. After the severe drought of 

 1839 it was in such abundance on the Liverpool Plains, and 

 on those of the Lower Namoi, that to compute the number in 

 a single flock was impossible. It was also very numerous on 

 the sea side of the great Liverpool range, inhabiting the open 

 down and flats, particularly such as were studded with shal- 

 low lagoons, through which it would wade knee-high in search 

 of shelled moUusks, frogs, newts and insects : independently 

 of the food I have mentioned, it feeds on grasshoppers and 

 insects generally. The natives informed me that sometimes 

 many seasons elapse without the bird being seen. 



The Straw-necked Ibis walks over the surface of the ground 

 in a very stately manner ; it perches readily on trees, and its 

 flight is both singular and striking, particularly when large 

 flocks are passing over the plains, at one moment showing 

 their white breasts, and at the next, by a change in their po- 



