322 THE GLOSSY-IBIS 



the little-egret, buff'backed and night-herons, however, required care- 

 ful authentication, so that it was necessary for one observer to mark 

 the parent bird down on to the nest from the sandhills above, while a 

 confederate lay concealed under the bushes below and climbed to the 

 nest under direction. All these birds made use of practically the same 

 materials for building, for as a matter of fact the only available twigs 

 were those of dead tamarisks close at hand. There were, however, 

 certain differences noticeable in the way in which the twigs were 

 arranged, and the night-herons showed a partiality for larger sticks, 

 arranging them so that they radiated from the middle of the nest. 

 Amongst the deafening chorus of cries which broke out as the birds 

 began to settle down on their nests, it was impossible to distinguish 

 the notes of the various species. The glossy-ibis is, as a rule, a very 

 silent bird, but, as stated by Naumann, it utters at times a harsh, 

 heron-like note, which he writes as "rrha" or "rraa." The late Lord 

 Lilford kept a number of them in confinement, and noticed that the 

 only sound he heard from them was a " decidedly corvine, prolonged 

 guttural croak." 



Wherever found, this species has always one characteristic, 

 namely, its sociable disposition. Whether feeding or nesting or 

 on migration, it is nearly always in company. While the egrets and 

 herons may be flushed from their solitary stands among the marshes, the 

 ibises are always in small or large parties. In Spain, where they are not 

 common, one meets with half a dozen or so walking sedately about, 

 very much as the curlew does, and probing the soft mud with their 

 long decurved bills. In Slavonia, where the colonies are of enormous 

 extent, Mr. Eagle Clarke met with no fewer than two hundred feeding 

 together. It is also naturally a wary bird, and in a mixed colony is 

 generally one of the first, if not actually the first species to take the 

 alarm. In flight the legs are not carried so straight behind as with 

 the herons, but droop slightly : the neck is also kept extended in flight, 

 so that the downward curve of the bill and the angle at which the legs 

 are held form a gentle curve. Sometimes they fly in wedge-shaped 



