On the Rosy Ibis of China and Japan. 249 



XXVIII. — On the Rosy Ibis of China and Japan (Ibis nippon) . 

 By Robert Swinhoe, H.B.M. Consul at Ningpo. 



Imagine my delight on learning, when I arrived at Ningpo, 

 that the Rosy Ibis was a resident in the vicinity, and known to 

 the natives as the Tien-go or " Celestial Goose " ! During the 

 closing months of last year I saw small parties of them at dusk 

 flying towards the hills; and on the 31st Dec, 1872, in the 

 forenoon, a pair flew over me in a small valley ; and the male, 

 perching on the broken top of a very tall pine, kept throwing 

 his head forward and crying now, now, in a loud hoarse voice. 

 It was his love-note. My comrade shot it ; but it fell where 

 it stood, and we could get no one to climb the giant smooth 

 stem. In April I was told that they were putting on their 

 dark breeding-feathers ; and on the 6th May, Pere David, 

 who had returned from a month's trip up country, assured 

 me that he had got the same form of Ibis of a grey colour, 

 and considered it of a new species. He laughed at the idea of 

 its being a young bird, as he had seen large numbers of them ; 

 he said that the Chinese recognized them as distinct under the 

 name Hwuy-go or " Grey Goose," and he believed they were 

 breeding among the high trees. A countryman had brought 

 me five eggs of Ibis, and offered them as those of Crows. He 

 had taken them from two Crow-like nests on the tops of high 

 pines about the 16th of March. On the 10th of June I had the 

 good fortune to get a wild Grey Ibis. It was a full-fledged 

 bird of the year, and very tame, had apparently been kept a 

 long time in captivity, refused to eat fish, and showed a pre- 

 ference for raw beef. Its cheeks and over the eye were 

 covered with small downy feathers, while the rest of its face 

 was bare and coloured orange-yellow instead of red. Its bill 

 was deep brown, the tip light orange-brown. Irides light 

 yellowish brown. Legs and feet light brown, with a tinge of 

 orange flesh-colour. Its plumage was of a dusky cream- 

 colour washed lightly with rosy, brighter on the concealed 

 parts of the feathers. Primary quills blackish brown at their 

 ends. It had the full occipital crest of the adult, which it 

 delighted in expanding. It rarely raised itself to its full 



