IBISES AND SPOONBILLS 



2081 



Ibises 



Owing to the general interest attaching to the sacred ibis, and like- 

 wise from the gorgeous coloration of the scarlet ibis of America, the 

 ibises are some of the best-known representatives of the order under consideration. 

 There birds of which there are several genera, form a subfamily characterized by 

 the slender and nearly- 

 cylindrical beak, which 

 tapers gradually toward 

 the tip, and is more or 

 less arched from its base. 

 In all of them the head 

 is more or less bald, al- 

 though occasionally only 

 the lores are naked; and 

 they generally have 

 plume-like scapular feath- 

 ers at the hinder end of 

 the back. The sacred 

 ibis of Africa (Ibis (zthio- 

 pica) is the type of a 

 genus characterized by 

 tne very-long and mod- 

 erately-stout bill; the 

 long wing in which the 

 second quill is slightly 



longer than the third; the short, twelve- feathered tail, and the general white hue of 

 the plumage. The African species attains a length of about twenty -nine inches, and 

 has the naked head and neck black, while the plumose feathers of the back and the 

 tips of the quills are greenish black; the rest of the plumage being white, tinged 

 here and there with buff. It is represented by the closely-allied black-headed ibis 

 (/. melanocephala] in India; while in Madagascar there is Bernier's ibis (/. bernieri), 

 distinguished by the much smaller extent of the naked black portion of the neck; 

 and a third species (7. stridipennis) inhabits Australia. The Japanese ibis (Nip- 

 penoa nippon} differs by having only the face bare of feathers; it inhabits both 

 Japan and China. 



Although so common in the country of the Pharaohs during its times of great- 

 ness, the sacred ibis is now unknown in Egypt; and Leith Adams has doubts 

 whether it was ever indigenous there. As he observes: "There could have been 

 no difficulty in procuring individuals from the shores of the Red Sea; and to a peo- 

 ple so well practiced in taming wild animals (as were the ancient Egyptians), we 

 ma}' conclude that it was soon domesticated, and bred freely. Moreover, like the 

 black-headed ibis of India, which usually lays from four to five eggs, we can easily 

 suppose that the numbers rapidly increased. On the contrary, when its protectors 

 vanished from the land, so did the ibis." This species now breeds in the Upper 

 Nile, in Nubia, and the Sudan, as it does in Abyssinia, and it extends through the 

 continent to the Cape, where it is, however, of rare occurrence. It is essentially a 



HEAD OF BERNIER'S IBIS. 

 (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1870.) 



