268 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



tail-coverts nearly pure white ; wings and tail black ; the face is less naked 

 than in the adult, and the extent of the bare skin increases with age. 



Iris pale yellow; bill and facial skin orange-yellow, plumbeous at the 

 base of the bill; legs, toes and claws brown. In the young the iris is 

 brown ; skin of the chin orange, turning to pinkish on the edge of the 

 throat ; facial skin and basal half of bill orange, terminal half dull yellowish 

 brown ; legs and feet brown. 



Length 40 inches, tail 6*5, wing 20, tarsus 9, bill from gape 10. The 

 female is slightly smaller. 



The Pelican Ibis is very abundant in the plains of Southern Pegu, where it 

 is a constant resident, and Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo. 

 Mr. Blyth gives it from Arrakan. In Tenasserim Mr. Davison observed 

 it at Tavoy, Mr. Davis at Thatone, and Mr. Hough in the extreme south 

 on the Pakchan river. It is met with over the whole of India and Ceylon, 

 the Indo-Burmese countries, Southern China and Cochin China. South 

 of Tenasserim it is replaced by T. lacteus. 



This large Ibis is found in large flocks frequenting marshes and inun- 

 dated paddy-fields. It feeds like a Stork, watching for and pouncing on 

 frogs, small fish and young snakes. It probably breeds on the southern 

 coast of Pegu, for the Burmese near Kyeikpadein know the bird well, and 

 informed me that it nested on tall trees in the plains south of Syriam. 

 In India it breeds in October, making a nest of sticks in trees and laying 

 two to four white eggs. 



Subfamily IBIDIN.E. 

 Genus IBIS, Lacep. 



632. IBIS MELANOCEPHALA. 



THE WHITE IBIS. 



Tantalus melanocephalus, Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. p. 709. Threskiornis xnelano- 

 cephalus, Jerd. B. Ind, ii. p. 768 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 032 ; Oates, S. F. 

 iii. p. 347. Ibis melanocephalus, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 359 j Bl. B. Burm. 

 p. 158 ; Elliot, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 488 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 452 ; Hume $ 

 Dav. S. F. vi. p. 484 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 114 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1106 ; 

 Oates, S. F. x. p. 244. 



Description. Male and female in breeding -plumage. Head and neck 

 naked and black ; the whole plumage white ; the tips of the earlier pri- 

 maries mottled with brown ; the shafts of the primaries black ; the scapulars 



