IBISES 125 



Purely accidental in Maine. They breed in secluded swamps 

 and about lakes in Lapland, Iceland and other Arctic regions 

 of the Old World, making a bulky nest of rushes, sedges, 

 grasses and moss which is placed on the ground. The eggs 

 are three to seven in number, dark ivory colored and measure 

 4.28x2.88 (Davie). The food is said to consist of vegetable 

 matter, small mollusks and water insects. 



ORDER HERODIONES. Herons, Storks, Ibises, etc. 

 Suborder CICONIiE. Storks, etc. 



Family CICONIID^. Storks and Wood Ibises. 

 Subfamily TANTALIN^. Wood Ibises. 

 Genus TANTALUS Linnaeus. 



188. Tantalus loculator Linn. Wood Ibis. 



Plumage of adults : head and neck bare, grayish dusky ; primaries, second- 

 aries and tail glossy greenish black ; under wing coverts rose pink in breed- 

 ing plumage only ; otherwise pirre white. Immature plumage : the head and 

 neck more or less covered with scattering woolly feathers of a grayish brown 

 color ; rest of plumage more or less marked with grayish but otherwise of 

 the general coloration of the adult. Wing 18.00 to 19.50 ; culmen 6.00 to 

 7.00 ; tarsus 7.00 to 8.00. 



Geog. Dist. — Southern United States from the Ohio Valley, Colorado, 

 Utah and southeastern California to the Argentine Republic ; casual north to 

 Pennsylvania, New York and Maine. 



County Records. — York ; one was shot in Berwick, July 16, 1896, by H. 

 M. Brackett and is now in the collection of Prof. J. Y. Stanton of Lewiston, 

 (A List of Birds of Maine, p. 38). 



Only once has this species been recorded from as far north 

 as this. They nest in colonies in the Southern States, building 

 nests which are mere platforms of sticks on various trees in 

 swamps. Two to four rather chalky, white eggs are laid. 

 Four eggs taken from a nest in a cypress tree about twenty feet 

 above the water in a swamp at Mud Lake, Orange Co., Florida, 

 April 11, 1895, measure 2.57 x 1.88, 2.46 x 1.88, 2.55 x 1-95, 

 2.64 X 1.89. The birds are said to feed on fish, frogs, lizards 

 and other reptiles of small size. 



