340 GLOSSY IBIS. 



approach, so that they are easily shot. They frequent inundated places, 

 the shores of lakes and rivers, and particularly grounds just left bare 

 by floods, where their favorite food abounds. They live in flocks, but 

 when once paired the sexes remain united for life. They feed on 

 insects, worms, mollusca, and the Ibises also on vegetable substances : 

 they search their food in mud, and often throw it up with their bill, 

 catching it as it descends in their throat. Shells, even of considerablo 

 size, they swallow entire, trusting to the muscular power of their 

 stomach to crush them, for which their bill is too weak. The Tantali 

 are also well known to use their powerful bills against fishes and reptiles, 

 but the true Ibis never, notwithstanding the popular belief to the con- 

 trary. When satisfied with feeding, they retire for digestion to the 

 highest trees, where they stand in an erect posture, resting their heavy 

 bill upon their breast. The Ibides more than the Tantali migrate 

 periodically and to vast distances. The habit of resting upon trees, as 

 indeed the whole animal economy (a thing never sufiiciently considered 

 in the formation of natural families) of the Ibis separate them from the 

 Scolopacidce. They are monogamous ; build on high trees, both sexes 

 assisting in the construction of the nest : the female lays two or three 

 whitish eggs, which she alone incubates, but is then fed by the male, 

 and both feed the young, which require for a long period the care of 

 the parents, and do not leave the nest till able to flutter. They walk 

 slowly, often sinking deeply in the mud while watching for prey : their 

 gait is measured, and they never run rapidly. Their flight is heavy, 

 but high and protracted. Their voice is loud and monotonous. In 

 domesticity, like many other birds, they become omnivorous. As to 

 anatomical conformation, the Ibises resemble the genera of Scolopacidce : 

 a very thick muscular stomach occupies nearly two-thirds of the anterior 

 capacity of the abdomen : the swelling of the oesophagus at its origin 

 is considerable and very glandulous : the intestines form an elliptic 

 mass, composed of a double spiral, besides first a turn bordering the 

 gizzard ; they measure upwards of three feet in length in the species 

 we treat of. There are two rather short and obtuse csecums. 



The Bay or Glossy Ibis is twenty-six inches in length, and more than 

 three feet in extent. The bill is of a greenish lead color, somewha.i 

 reddish at tip, and varies much in length in difi'erent specimens, — the 

 longest we have measured was five and a half inches from the corners 

 of the mouth : in many it is but four inches : it is slender, thicker at 

 base, and higher than broad, rather compressed and obtusely rounded 

 at tip, and less arcuated than in the other North American species ; the 

 upper mandible is somewhat longer than the lower, thickened and sub- 

 angulated at base, and flattened at its origin : two deep furrows run 

 from the nostrils to the extremity, dividing it into three portions ; the 

 edges of both mandibles are quite entire, and being bent -in, they foric 



