64 SOME USEFUL ^(JSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



projection on the point of the elbow of the wing ; but though the spur should 

 be a weapon of offence or defence, the writer has never seen the birds use it 

 in any way. 



All the plovers are looked upon as game birds in Great Britain, and 

 plovers' eggs are imported from the Continent. In this country sportsmen 

 were once accustomed to add them to their bag when other game was scarce, 

 but under our latest regulations they are protected all the year round in 

 -consideration of their insectivorous habits. 



The Straw-necked Ibis [Carphibis (Geronticus) spinicollis Jamieson]. 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 282, No. 538 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 53, No. 113. 



In the ibis family we have a very interesting group of large insectivorous 

 birds, the members of which are found in most parts of the world. In 

 Australia the family is represented by three species, which are to be found 

 in all the different States. The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis fakinellus) is the 

 smallest of the three, and, unlike the others, has the whole of the head and 

 neck feathered. The whole of the plumage is of a uniform chestnut-brown 

 tint with glossy metallic reflections. Though it is our rarest species, it has a 

 very wide distribution, being found in England, southern Europe, northern 

 Africa, across Asia to Australia, and it is also found in marsh lands of 

 Florida, in the south-east of the United States. 



The second is the White Ibis (Ibis molucca] which, though confined to 

 Australia, New Guinea, aud some of the southern islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago, is closely related to the White Ibis or Sacred Ibis of Africa, 

 which was worshipped in ancient Egypt, where it appeared every year from 

 the interior with the inundation of the Nile delta lands. Many mummies 

 of these birds have been found in the excavations among the tombs, and in 

 the time of the Pharaohs it was a capital offence to kill an ibis. It is said 

 that when Cambyses, King of Persia, laid siege to the town of Damietta, he 

 placed a number of Sacred Ibis in front of his soldiers who led the attack, 

 and that the Egyptian defenders capitulated rather than allow the destruc- 

 tion of these birds, to such an extent was this veneration carried out in 

 ancient Egypt. 



The common White Ibis has the head bare, beak and legs black, and a few 

 black plumes in the wings. It is often noticed in pairs about the swamps, 

 but will congregate in flocks and do a great deal of useful work in destroying 

 all kinds of insect pests. Though not so numerous in New South Wales as 

 the Straw-necked Ibis, it ranks well up in the list of useful insectivorous birds. 



The third species, illustrated in this series, is typical of the family and 

 well known all over the State as the Black-and-White Ibis, on account of its 

 general coloration, or the Sbraw-neaked Ib's, b3causs of its remarkable neck 

 ornamentation, formed of aborted feathers. The shafts of the neck feathers 

 are produced into slender, yellow-pointed tubes, not unlike the quills of a 

 porcupine, and, on the old birds, hang down in quite a large bunch. In Vic 



