608 ARDEID^E. 



This bird appears to have been seen frequently by 

 Messrs. Dickson and Ross iri the vicinity of the river at 

 Erzeroum ; and the naturalists with the Russian expedi- 

 tion met with it in the countries between the Black and 

 the Caspian Seas. 



Dr. Latham considered it a bird of India on the autho- 

 rity of drawings made in that country, and Colonel Sykes 

 has since brought specimens from the Dukhun. It has 

 also been found at Thibet, Nepal, and Calcutta. Ac- 

 cording to M. Temminck, specimens of this same Ibis 

 have been obtained at Java, at Sunda, and some of the 

 neighbouring islands in the eastern seas. In his fine work 

 on the Birds of Australia, Mr. Gould has figured an adult 

 and a young bird, and observes that this species has been 

 found in every part of the vast continent of Australia at 

 present known to us. 



The Glossy Ibis was first made known as an inhabitant 

 of the United States of North America, by Mr. George 

 Ord, the friend, the companion, and the biographer of 

 Alexander Wilson. Though a rare bird in the Northern 

 States, several examples have been obtained. Mr. Nuttall, 

 in his Ornithology of the United States and Canada, says, 

 that a specimen has occasionally been exposed for sale in 

 the market of Boston. Mr. Audubon says, " It exists in 

 vast numbers in Mexico. In the spring of 1837 I saw 

 flocks in the Texas, but even there it is only a summer 

 resident along the grassy margins of the rivers and bayous, 

 and apparently going to and from its roosting places in the 

 interior of the country." The bird figured by Mr. Au- 

 dubon in his splendid work was obtained in Florida, and 

 this Ibis has been figured as the Brazilian Curlew from 

 specimens obtained in Brazil. 



In Europe the Glossy Ibis lives principally on the 

 banks of rivers, and on the shores of lakes or muddy 



