362 IIJIDID/E. 



Coloration. Plumage white, the ends of the tertiaries slaty grey, 

 and generally the tips of the first primaries edged or mottled with 

 brown. In breeding-plumage there are elongate white feathers 

 round the base of the neck and plumes on the upper breast, and 

 the grey tertiaries are elongate and loose-textured. 



Young birds have the head and neck feathered as far forward 

 as the eyes ; the head, except beneath, blackish grey, which passes 

 gradually into white on the hind neck. 



Bill black ; irides red-brown ; head and neck dark bluish black ; 

 legs glossy black ; skin of wing blooc^-red. 



Length 30 ; tail 5 ; wing 14 ; tarsus 4 ; bill from gape 6*o. 



Distribution. Throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma in suitable 

 localities, also in China and Southern .Japan. 



Habits, <$fc. The White Ibis is a resident, most common in those 

 parts of the plains of India where there are large marshes with 

 high reeds and trees growing in them, but it may be found 

 wherever there are rivers or large tanks ; generally in flocks, 

 except in the breeding-season. It feeds on mollusca, Crustacea, 

 insects, worms, &c. The breeding-season is from June to August 

 in Northern India, November to February in Ceylon, and the 

 nest is of sticks on a large tree, several pairs of birds often 

 nesting together. The eggs are from 2 to 4 in number, generally 

 3, bluish or greenish white, as a rule without markings, but 

 occasionally delicately spotted with yellowish brown, and they 

 measure on an average 2-54 by 1*7. 



Genus INOCOTIS, Reichenb., 1852. 



Two Indian species of Ibis are distinguished by having the head 

 naked in adults but not the neck ; the bill is more slender than 

 in the genus lb-is; the feet shorter, and the plumage nearly black 

 instead of white. 



One of the species, /. davisoni, has been unnecessarily made the 

 type of a distinct genus, the differences between the two being 

 very small indeed. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Crown of the head with red granular papillae . . I. papillo&H# t p. 362, 



b. No red papilla3 on the head, crown smooth . . . t /. ftarisoni, p. 364. 



1542. Inocotis papillosus. The Blnck Ibis. 



Ibis papillosa, Ternm. PL Col. pi. 304 (1824). 



Geronticus papillosus, Gray, Cat. Mamm. etc. Coll. Hodys. p. 137 ; 



Blyth, Cat. p. 275 ; Jer'don, B. I. iii. p. 769 ; Blytlt, 'ibis, 1867, 



p. 174 ; King, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, p. 217 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. 8. B. 



xxxix, pt. 2, p. 275; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xli, pt, 2, p. 255; 



Hume, N. fy E. p. 633 ; id. S. F. i, p. 257 ; Adam. ibid. p. 400; 



Blyth, Birds Burin, p. 158 ; Butler fy Hume, 8. F. iv. p. 25 ; 



Fail-bank, 8. F. iv, p. 264 ; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 231. 

 Inocotis papillosus, Bonap. Consf). ii, p. 154 ; Davids, fy Wend. S. F. 



