TANTALID@, IBISES, SPOONBILLS.—GEN. 224, 225-6. 263 
at base, the hinder lengthened and inserted low down, as in storks and herons (not 
 eranes) ; middle claw not pectinate as in the herons. Chiefly lacustrine and palus- 
trine inhabitants of the warmer parts of the globe, feeding on fish, reptiles and 
other animals. The sexes are alike; the 
_ young different. The manifest modification 
of the bill is the principal external character 
of the three subfamilies into which the group 
is divisible. 
. 
j 
Subfamily TANTALINA. Wood Lbises. 
Bill long, extremely stout at base, where 
it is as broad as the face, gradually tapering 
to the decurved tip, without nasal groove or 
membrane, the nostrils directly perforating 
its substance. One genus and three or four 
_ species of America, Africa, Southern Asia, 
and part of the East Indies. 
| 224. Genus TANTALUS Linneus. 
Wood Ibis. Adult with head and Beep Perc oD. 
_ part of the neck naked, corrugate, bluish; legs blue; bill pale greenish ; 
plumage entirely white, excepting the quills, tail, primary coverts and alula, 
which are glossy black; young with the head downy-feathered, the plumage 
_ dark gray, the quills and tail blackish; about 4 feet long; wing 18-20 
: 
inches; bill 8-9; tarsus 7-8. Wooded swampy places in the Southern 
states, N. to Ohio and the Carolinas, W. to the Colorado, abundant; grega- 
rious; nests in trees and bushes. Wrrts., viii, 39, pl. 66; Nurr., ii, 82; 
Reeweerevia oto pl. ool; Bp. 682. . 3. . « . . « + LOCULATOR. 
Subfamily IBIDINA. Lbises. 
Bill long, very slender, curved throughout, and grooved nearly or quite to the 
tip (thus closely resembling a curlew’s). There are about twenty species of ibises, 
among which minor details of form vary considerably, nearly every one of them 
having been made the type of some genus. They probably form two genera, Ibis, with 
the tarsi scutellate in front, and Geronticus, with the legs entirely reticulate. Our 
species vary in the nakedness of the head, which in one is little more than in the 
herons, and in none is it complete, as in the preceding and following genus. 
225-6. Genus IBIS Moehring. 
Glossy Ibis. Plumage rich dark chestnut, changing to glossy dark green 
with purplish reflections on the head, wings and elsewhere; bill dark ; 
_ young similar, much duller, or grayish-brown, especially on the head and 
neck, which are white-streaked. Claws slender, nearly straight; head bare 
only about the eyes and between the forks of the jaw. Length about 2 feet ; 
Wing 10-11; tail 4; bill 4$; tarsus 34; middle toe and claw 3. U.S., 
_ generally but irregularly distributed, chiefly southerly and especially coast- 
wise; N. casually to New England. Bownarv., Am. Orn. iv, 23, pl. 23; 
Norv., ii, 88; Aup., vi, 50, 358; Bp., 685. . FALCINELLUS var. ORDII. 
