1887.] Browne on New England Glossy Ibises. 0*7 



THE NEW ENGLAND GLOSSY IBISES OF 1850. 



BY F. C. BROWNE. 



The history of the first positively known appearance of the 

 Glossy Ibis in Massachusetts and the second in New England 

 (Linsley, Connecticut, 1843, being first) has been but imperfectly 

 written, the latest and fullest account being that by Dr. Coues in 

 Stearns and Coues's 'New England Bird Life.' Having mem- 

 oranda made at the time on all the five examples then taken, and 

 two of them having passed through my hands soon after they 

 were shot, it seems to rest specially with me to supply the details 

 that are lacking. 



I was at that time in the junior class at Harvard College, and 

 an active member and Curator of Ornithology of the Harvard Nat- 

 ural History Society, then a wide-awake students' society, under 

 the presidency of Storer, son of the well known icthyologist, Dr. 



D. H. Storer of Boston. 



To avoid confusion I will number the specimens 1, 2, 3, 4. and 

 =5. and from notes made at the time, from memory, and from sub- 

 sequent inquiries, tell their story. 



No. 1. The Cambridge, Mass., bird. — Entry in note-book: 

 '•May 8, fS^o. Had the pleasure this morning of examining a 

 fine specimen of a rare bird, the Glossy Ibis {Ibis falcinellus of 

 And.). It was shot at Fi - esh Pond in this town by classmate 



E. Brown, from a flock of three. He will present it to our 

 Society, a valuable acquisition. Audubon says, 'of exceedingly 

 rare occurrence in the United States, but abundant in Texas' ; 

 and adds that he knows of but four shot in the United States. 

 Nuttall says, 'a specimen occasionally exposed for sale in Boston 

 market.' The color of bill varies materially from Audubon's des- 

 cription. He has it, 'bill black' ; in this fresh-killed specimen it 

 is very nearly clay color, with a tinge of green. Nuttall savs 

 'greenish black,' which is nearly as far out of the way." 



As Curator of Ornithology the bird came into my charge, and 

 I took it to Ogden, then the leading taxidermist of Boston, for 

 mounting. The older bird-men will remember Ogden's den in 

 the attic of the old Tremont Temple, with the magnificent moose 

 in the passagewav. The building was burned soon after, Ogden 

 losing- everything. 



