530 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of [Ibis, 



inch above normal, and watched the incoming flocks, 

 divided between the ornithologist's interest and the land- 

 owner's anxiety. Arro^v -shaped, javelin-formation ; small 

 bands, huge flocks — now high up in the sky, anon skim- 

 ming unexpectedly over the rush-beds : silent, inexorable, 

 innumerable. And with a sigli, T have gone back and said 

 to my staff : '' The weather is clear and the barometer 

 favourable, but the water has risen further, and the Cuervos 

 continue to come in like an Egyptian plague ; to-morrow 

 we move out such-and-such threatened flocks of sheep on to 

 the higher land." For with fifty to sixty flocks, summing 

 perhaps a hundred thousand sheep, and a country-side 

 resembling the old Lincoln or Cambridgeshire fen-districts, 

 the problem and its solution were of a difficult nature, in 

 spite of the legend that " the Gibsons had evolved a web- 

 footed breed of sheep at the Yngleses^' ! 



The Cuervo is a very tame bird, and pays no attention to 

 the passing horseman or even the approximation of a human 

 being on foot. To the ordinary gunner it presents no 

 interest, either for the pot or, happily so far, on account 

 of its iridescent plumage (I speak to its immunity in our 

 own locality ; from somewhere must come the many wings 

 and tails one sees on ladies' hats in the civilised or fashionable 

 world). Nevertheless, I was rather taken aback by two 

 curious instances of domesticity in a bird of this family. 

 One hot forenoon in February an individual walked into 

 the patio and moved about completely regardless of those 

 people present ; it pecked at the dry turf in a mechanical 

 and perfunctory manner, and finally flew away. Fifteen 

 years later, also in the summer-time, another bird appa- 

 rently found some suitable food on the garden-path a few 

 yards in front of the dwelling-house, and made itself at 

 home for quite an appreciable interval. 



Both Hudson and myself have mentioned how it is not 

 confined to the marshes, but feeds on the plains in the 

 summer when grasshoppers and small locusts are abundant. 

 It is also a feeder in the vicinity of carrion or ofial — 

 Hudson says on the larvae of the flesh-fly — but I opine that 



