Capt. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 399 



elsewhere made mention (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 692) ; so that its 

 habitat is probably somewhat restricted. 



941. Thresciornis melanocephalus. White Ibis. 



I saw this bird at Julpigoorie in 1860 ; and again at Beera- 

 chalee, Maunbhoom, on the 24th of March 1865, I observed 

 four, which had probably come there to breed. The dimensions 

 given are those of one of these. I procured a specimen in 

 Burmah, ou the Thatone creek near Moulmein, on the 4th of 

 October 1865. It was feeding on a sandbank in the middle of 

 the river, together with a number of Pelicans of different spe- 

 cies, and was the only one of the species I ever came across 

 there. Length 28 ; wing 14 ; bill, from front nearly 7; tarsus 4 ; 

 middle toe to end of claw 4. 



It was a sight really worth seeing, especially for an orni- 

 thologist, on this trip down the Thatone Creek. For miles 

 the water was literally white with Pelicans, which were making 

 the most of the ebb-tide : — some fishing in line, and thus driving 

 their finny prey into a corner where it might be devoured at 

 leisure; others, ou their own account, filling their pouch with 

 amazing rapidity; while along the banks, drawn up in single 

 file, like a company of infantry, at equal distances from each 

 other, were numbers of the Pelican-Ibis [Tantalus leucocephalas) , 

 each with its open beak immersed in the water, patiently waiting 

 to snap up any unwary fish that, frightened by the Pelicans in 

 mid-stream, might happen to run against it. The creek appears 

 to swarm with various fish, which, I am told, come up from the 

 sea every cold season for the sake of depositing their spawn 

 amongst the standing paddy in the plains ; and those then going 

 down were probably the young of the year. The bushes on 

 either bank were filled with the common Paddy-bird [Ardeula 

 leucoptera), while here and there an occasional Black-headed 

 Kingfisher {Halcyon atricapillus) dashed across the stream. 

 The bare boughs of the high trees which bordered this creek 

 were covered with Pelicans and Tantali — of the latter, both 

 half-grown young and old birds ; and wheeling in air, often at a 

 great height, might be seen the serried ranks and glistening 

 white plumage of fresh arrivals in this, to them, magnificent 

 land of promise. Further down the creek, towards the sea, 



