VOL. XIV. I 



NOTES 



137 



NOTES ON A FLOCK OF GLOSSY IBISES IN 

 CORNWALL. 

 A LITTLE after midday on September 19th, 1920, while sitting 

 on St. Michael's Mount, I saw a line of ten black long-necked 

 birds fly from the east over Marazion (about half a mile away) 

 and drop down to the Marazion Marsh, which forms a triangle 

 between the high road and the railway ; on reaching this 

 marsh, I saw at once that the flock consisted of ten Glossy 

 Ibises [Plegadis f. falcineUns), a bird I had previously seen 

 in Egypt onl3^ 



On this and the following day I had excellent opportunities 



FLOCK OF GLOSSY IBISES IN CORNWALL. 



{Photographed by A. W. Boyd.) 



of watching them. The marsh has running across it several 

 large banks and ditches, and it was possible to crawl under 

 cover of these to within a few yards of the birds and to watch 

 them at close quarters. Their tameness was remarkable for 

 birds of their size, and there were numbers of occasions when 

 they could be observed at distances of from eight to thirty 

 yards, long after other birds — Curlews, Herons, Ducks, etc. — 

 had flown away. 



They fed almost incessantly, usually in some wet part of 

 the marsh in a few inches of water ; on the first day the\' 

 kept in a close flock, but on the second were rather more 

 scattered. 



Sometimes one alone would rise and fly for a few yards in a 



