1919-] Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ayres. 533 



and the state of freedom they enjoyed. Locally my bird- 

 proclivities had long been known ; but even my neighbours 

 were startled to find Ibises where they would have looked 

 for poultry, and to see Spoonbills, Herons, and Egrets 

 winging their way from the swamps into the patio as the 

 bell rang at sundown for supper, and proceeded to take up 

 their abode for the night. 



32S. Theristicus caudatus Bodd. Black-faced Ibis. 



The Black-faced Ibis or ''Banduria de las Sierras/' as it is 

 denominated here, is a winter visitor to our locality, my 

 earliest date being 28 April and the latest appearance 

 28 July, or three brief mouths in all. Moreover, these 

 a[)pearances are rare and very irregular. In 1875 I saw 

 a pair. In 1880 I noted two or three pairs, and two small 

 flocks of seven or eight. In 1882 there were even more 

 occurrences, including a flock of about thirty. A long blank 

 ensues until 1902, when two small flocks were noted — one 

 on the Yngleses, and another thirty miles away towards 

 Dolores. Since then my diary is silent. Due to my not 

 infrequent absences from the locality in the winter-time 

 these records are necessarily partial, but I am led to the 

 conclusion that either from climatic reasons or, what is 

 more probable, the altered conditions of human occupation 

 between the confines of Patagonia and this latitude in the 

 Province of Buenos Ayres, there is a restriction in the 

 number of the species — or at least in its tendency to a 

 northern migration (it is an ominous circuujstance that the 

 late Dr. P. L. Sclater should have written me in 1900 

 asking for a specimen-skin of the Black-faced Ibis, '^ as 

 none existed from Argentina in the British Museum"). 



It is a most noticeable bird — in size, coloration, and 

 cry. 1 have always found it frequenting the open campo 

 or plains, where it is very shy and difficult of approach, 

 even on horseback. On taking to flight, or when alarmed, 

 the note is short, metallic, and sonorous. The flight is low 

 and heavy, but powerful. 



