378 



Coloration. In breeding-plumage the longer scapulars, ail th 

 quills, the winglet, primary and greater secondary coverts, ane 

 the tail are black, glossed with dark green and purple ; remainder 

 of plumage white. 



Fig. 90. Head of A. oscitans. 



At the moult after the breeding-season the white is replaced 

 by smoky grey, darkest on the occiput and upper back. This 

 becomes white by a change of colour in the feathers at the 

 breeding- season. The black parts of the plumage undergo no 

 change. 



Young birds have the back and shorter scapulars brown, longer 

 scapuhirs and tertiaries brownish ; otherwise they resemble adults- 

 in non-breeding plumage. 



Bill dull greenish, tinged with reddish beneath ; nude orbits and 

 gular skin blackish ; irides grey or pale brown ; legs pale fleshy 

 (Jerdon). 



Length 32; tail 7; wing 16*5 ; tarsus 5-5 ; bill from gape 6. 



Distribution. Throughout the great plain of Northern India 

 from Bengal to Sind ; particularly common in Bengal, and in other 

 well-watered tracts throughout India and Ceylon, but this bird is 

 not common except about large rivers or marshes. It is also- 

 common in Assam and Manipur and is found in Arrakan, but is 

 very rare in Pegu and unknown elsewhere in Burma. It occurs, 

 however, in Cochin China. 



Habits, $*c. This curious Stork lives chiefly on freshwater 

 raollusca, especially Ampullaria, and, it is said, Unio, and is 

 stated by Jerdon, from his observations on captive and blinded 

 birds, to cut off the operculum of the Ampullaria and extract the 

 animal whole ; but Bingham, who had good opportunities of 

 matching the birds, both in the field and in confinement, found 

 that they broke the Amputtarice before extracting the molluscs, 

 and crushed smaller mollusca before swallowing them. They 

 occasionally eat fish, crabs, &c., but subsist mainly on mollusca, 

 Anastomus is often seen in flocks, frequenting marshes and paddy 

 fields. It breeds on trees gregariously and lays from 2 to 5, 

 generally 4, white eggs, measuring about 2*24 by 1-6. The 

 breeding- season is July and August in Northern India, January to 

 March in Ceylon. 



The name Shell-Ibis being inapplicable to a bird that is a Stork 

 and not an Ibis, I have adopted the term Open-bill proposed by 

 Professor Newton. It is a translation of Buffon's Bee ouvert, the 

 oldest name for this bird in a European language. 



