250 Mr. R. Swinhoe on the 



height, and then only as a preliminary to shaking and preen- 

 ing itself. I sent this fine bird to the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, where I hear it is now safely domiciled *. 



On the 23rd of August I was on our Western Lake and saw 

 large parties of this Ibis, white birds and dusky birds in com- 

 pany together. 



On the 18th November I was there again, and came across 

 very large flocks of them ; but all were white and rose- 

 coloured, not a grey bird among them. I shot three — an adult 

 male, a male of the year, and a female of the year. The lake- 

 dwellers call them Hong- (Red) le, as they call the Heron 

 Sah-le. We were moored near a shallow at one end of the 

 lake, and had the gratification of seeing a large party of Ibises 

 alight about 100 yards off to feed. They settled in the muddy 

 shallow water, which covered their legs up to their tarsal 

 knees, and assumed a crouching position, looking as small as 

 Curlews. After remaining perfectly still for a few minutes, 

 they put their bills into the water and advanced, brandishing 

 their bills under water right and left, and thrusting them for- 

 ward ; any thing caught was jerked into the bill by a few nods 

 of the head. They must have felt their prey ; the water was too 

 muddy to see into. There was no darting at it as with Herons, 

 or walking about and probing mud as with Curlews, or slash- 

 ing liquid mud with the beak as with Avocets. Every time 

 I saw them feeding it was thus up to their knees in muddy 

 water ; and their captures were small fish, as dissection after- 

 wards proved. As each grew tired of feeding, or had had 

 enough, he flew on to a ridge of earth close by, stretched him- 

 self, yawned, shook his feathers, scratched and preened a little, 

 and then sank to the usual contracted position, and remained 

 quite still. As I approached they did not raise their heads 

 to full length, as Ducks and Herons &c. do when disturbed, 

 but sprang into the air direct from their crouching attitude, 

 their flammeous wings making quite a glow as if under 

 the light of the rising or the setting sun, their bills chattering, 

 and uttering a " gaw "-like murmur, with cries of a guttural 

 sound like gok, gok, as they flapped to a safer ground. They 



* [It arrived in November last (see P.Z. S. 1872, p. 802.), but unfor- 

 tunately died April 23. — Ed.] 



