

GLOSSY IBIS. 575 



since brought specimens from the Dukhun. It has also 

 been found at Thibet, Nepal and Calcutta. According to 

 M. Temminck specimens of this same Ibis have been ob- 

 tained at Java, at Sunda, and some of the neighbouring 

 islands in the eastern seas. In the seventeenth part of his 

 fine work on the Birds of Australia, Mr. Gould has figured 

 an adult and a young bird, and observes that this species 

 has been found in every part of the vast continent of Aus- 

 tralia at present known to us. 



The Glossy Ibis was first made known as an inhabitant 

 of the United States of North America, by Mr. George 

 Ord, the friend, the companion, and the biographer of 

 Alexander Wilson. Though a rare bird in the Northern 

 States, several examples have been obtained. Mr. Nuttall, 

 in his Ornithology of the United States and Canada, says, 

 that a specimen has occasionally been exposed for sale in the 

 market of Boston. Mr. Audubon says, " it exists in vast 

 numbers in Mexico. In the spring of 1837 I saw flocks in 

 the Texas, but even there it is only a summer resident 

 along the grassy margins of the rivers and bayous, and ap- 

 parently going to and from its roosting places in the interior 

 of the country." The bird figured by Mr. Audubon in his 

 splendid work was obtained in Florida, and this Ibis has 

 been figured as the Brazilian Curlew from specimens ob- 

 tained in Brazil. 



In Europe the Glossy Ibis lives principally on the banks 

 of rivers, and on the shores of lakes or muddy flats which 

 are occasionally flooded over ; feeding on small reptiles, the 

 fry of fishes, small Crustacea, aquatic insects, worms and 

 other soft-bodied animals. Of its nidification or its eggs 

 little that I am aware of is known. Montagu says that 

 it builds in trees, but for this, though very probable, no 

 authority is named. 



