WOOD IBIS. 55 



A very fine specimen of this bird was sent to me 

 from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, Esq. of Beaufort, South 

 Carolina ; its size and markings were as follow : 



Length, three feet two inches ; bill, nearly nine inches 

 long, straight for half its length, thence curving down- 

 wards to the extremity, and full two inches thick at the 

 base, where it rises high in the head, the whole of a 

 brownish horn colour ; the under mandible fits into the 

 upper in its whole length, and both are very sharp 

 edged : face, and naked head, and part of the neck, dull 

 greenish blue, wrinkled ; eye, large, seated high in the 

 head ; irides, dark red ; under the lower jaw is a loose 

 corrugated skin, or pouch, capable of containing about 

 half a pint ; whole body, neck, and lower parts, white ; 

 quills, dark glossy green and purple ; tail, about two 

 inches shorter than the wings, even at the end, and of 

 a deep and rich violet; legs and naked thighs, dusky 

 green ; feet and toes, yellowish, sprinkled with black ; 

 feet, almost semipalmated, and bordered to the claws 

 with a narrow membrane ; some of the greater wing- 

 coverts are black at the root, and shafted with black ; 

 plumage on the upper ridge of the neck, generally worn 

 with rubbing on the back, while in its common position, 

 of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the 

 white ibis. 



The female has only the head and chin naked ; both 

 are subject to considerable changes of colour when 

 young, the body being found sometimes blackish above, 

 the belly cinereous, and spots of black on the wing- 

 coverts ; all of which, as the birds advance in age, 

 gradually disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, 

 c. as has been described. 



