2080 HERONS, STORKS, AND IBISES 



greenish black; the eye being yellowish white, the beak waxy yellow, and the leg 

 and foot red. In size the bird is somewhat inferior to the white stork. Young 

 birds have the neck and upper parts ashy gray, and the rest of the plumage yellow- 

 ish gray. The species is restricted to Western Africa. 



The American wood stork is a common bird in many parts of the United 

 States, where it associates in large flocks. According to Audubon, it feeds entirely 

 upon fish and aquatic reptiles, of which it consumes enormous quantities. To pro- 

 cure their food, these birds walk in numbers through, shallow muddy lakes; and 

 ' ' as soon as they have discovered a place abounding in fish, they dance, as it were, 

 all through it, until the water becomes thick with the mud stirred from the bottom 

 by their feet. The fishes, on rising to the surface, are instantly struck by the beak 

 of the ibises, and on being deprived of life they turn over, and so remain. In the 

 course of ten or fifteen minutes, hundreds of fishes, young alligators, and water 

 snakes cover the surface, and the birds greedily swallow them until they are com- 

 pletely gorged, after which they walk to the nearest margins, place themselves in 

 long rows, with their breasts all turned to the sun, in the manner of pelicans and 

 vultures, and there remain for an hour or so. ' ' In the adult bird the head and 

 upper part of the neck are bare and of a livid blue color, tinged with yellow on the 

 forehead; the legs are blue, tinged with yellow on the webs; while the plumage is 

 white. 



IBISES AND SPOONBILLS 

 Family PLATALEID^, 



The last group of the order comprises the medium-sized birds known as ibises 

 and spoonbills, represented by some thirty species distributed all over the globe, 

 and which may be conveniently included under a single family heading. All these 

 birds are distinguished from the storks by the beak being soft for the greater part 

 of its length, although hard at the tip, and marked by a deep groove extending from 

 the slit-like nostril on each side of the base of its upper mandible to the very tip, 

 which is truncated and bent down. The limbs are stout and of moderate length, 

 with the front toes connected by a short basal web; the wings are generally pointed; 

 the tail is' short and truncated, and the plumage soft. As regards their skele- 

 ton, the lower mandible has its angle produced into a recurved process behind its 

 articulation with the skull instead of being truncated as in the storks; the skull has 

 a pair of small vacuities on the occipital surface; and the nasal apertures are in the 

 form of extremely-long slits (shizorhina) , in place of being ovals. Finally, the 

 furcula resembles that of the storks. All these birds associate in large com- 

 panies, and differ from the typical members of the preceding family in their habit 

 of probing about with their beaks in water in search of food, till they come in 

 contact with some object, which is then seized. They nest in trees, and lay white 

 eggs. 



