IBIS MTHIOPICA. 737 
the plumage ; they are gregarious, and may often be seen feeding with 
the Egrets and Herons on the shrimps, small fish, and crabs which 
abound in the little streamlets and mud at low water at the head of 
the bay. The White Herons and Sacred Ibis are absent during the 
summer; no doubt they then resort to their breeding haunts.” 
Major Feilden states that when in Natal he saw a flock of eight 
flying over Bennett’s Drift Camp, about three miles from Newcastle, 
on the 16th of September. Mr. Ayres says that the species is 
plentiful in the Transvaal, frequenting the swamps, in flocks of fifty 
or sixty together, but he is not aware that they breed there. 
Mr. Barratt writes: “I have observed these birds in flocks of 
about ten or a dozen at the sides of vleys and swampy places near 
Potchefstroom and towards the mouth of the Mooi River, where 
their white plumage and black shining necks cannot but attract the 
notice of the bystander. They walk about thrusting their long bills 
into the mud, and then will stop suddenly, and appear to listen with 
their heads on one side, when they fly off, and, circling round, alight 
a few yards further away. They have their favourite feeding-places, 
which I generally found to be in corners near the bends of rivers. 
I have also shot them near Bloemfontein, and I have observed them 
a few miles south of Pretoria.” Sir John Kirk states that it arrives 
in the Zambesi from the north in December, being found at all 
seasons near the coast, where it feeds on the sea-shore at low water. 
Its flesh is very good eating. In Mr. Andersson’s work on the 
“ Birds of Damara Land,” he writes as follows: “‘I have never 
observed this species in Damara or Great Namayua Land; but it is 
not uncommon in the Lake-regions, and is extremely abundant in 
Ondonga, especially during the rainy season, when it is compara- 
tively tame, though wild at other times. It is sometimes met with 
in flocks of from fifty to a hundred individuals; it is a heavy bird, 
and its flesh is good eating.”” Senor Anchieta has met with it at 
the Coroca River in Mossamedes (native name, Deleca), and at Humbe 
on the Cunene River. 
General colour pure white ; the tips of the wing-feathers being 
brilliant dark green, and the supplementary plumes assumed by the 
male in his nuptial livery, deep rich blue and white, and very lax ; 
head and the whole of the neck in the male, bare and black ; in the 
female, clothed with short black and white feathers ; chin and space 
3B 
