1877.] MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE IBIDIN^fi. 497 



when the ground is frozen and often covered with snow. The young 

 are fully fledged and have the appearance of adult birds by April. 

 They retain their grey plumage throughout the summer, and moult 

 about October. 



In a male of the year the proventriculus was granulated beneath 

 the outer surface, If inch long, -9 at broadest ; stomach of an 

 irregular oval, with strong lateral tendons and gummy adnate epithe- 

 lium, 2|- inches long by 2| broad, full of half-digested little fish and 

 a few small shrimps; intestine white, •2--4 thick, about 6 feet long, 

 with caeca 3 inches from the anus, the right one about '4 long, the 

 l«ft little more than a pimple ; testes small and bluish black, the left 

 twice the size of the right. The flesh cooked was coarse and fishy. 

 An adult male had testes much larger, unequal in size, and ochraceous 

 yellow. The whole of the flesh, fat, cartilage, and bone was saturated 

 with the vermilion tint that appears on the wings and soft external 

 parts of the birds. The trachea was 6| inches, consisting of a series 

 of rings close together, broad on one side, narrow on the other, until 

 just before reaching the bronchi, when four or five uniform rings 

 occur ending in a projecting semicircle of bone as thick as two of the 

 broad parts of the upper rings ; below this two crescentic bony ridges 

 commenced the short bronchi. The trachea averages -5 inch in 

 breadth, becoming narrower towards its end. The tongue is short, 

 •G inch, triangular, with a concave papillose base ; the hyoids thick 

 and curved, the first joint 1 -4 inch, the second -8 long. The eggs 

 measure from 2 inches in length by 1-25 in breadth to 2-6 by 1-6. 

 They were pale bluish green in colour, and had a rough surface. 



I have examined the specimens obtained by Pere David at Cho- 

 leang, Province of Tchakiang, and named by him (/. c.) Ibis sinensis ; 

 and I agree with M. Oustalet {I. c.) that they are only the young of 

 the present species, — young of the year, which have not altogether 

 assumed the adult dress, the grey or plumbeous colour still lingering 

 upon the upper portions of the wings, mantle, and neck. 



The plumage of the adult is a beautiful rosy white. The shafts 

 of the feathers of the wings and tail are pale vermilion, and the webs 

 rose-colour. A long pendent open crest flows from the back of the 

 head ; top of head and face bare of feathers ; skin bright red ; bill 

 black, its tip vermilion; legs and feet Indian-red; iris vermilion. 

 Total length 31 inches; wings 16|, tail Q^, bill along culmen 6|-, 

 tarsus 3^. 



Young. — Cheeks and over the eyes covered with downy feathers, 

 rest of face bare, orange-yellow ; general plumage dusky cream- 

 colour, glossed with rose-colour ; primaries blackish brown ; legs 

 and feet light brown ; irides light yellowish brown. 



12. Cercibis oxycerca. 



Ibis oxycerca, Spix, Av. Brasil. (1825) pi. 87, p. 69. 

 Cercibis oxycercus, "Wagl. Isis (1832) p. 1232. 

 Hab. Brazil, river Amazons, westward to Bogota. 

 This is a scarce species in collections, and was first described by 

 Proc. Zool. Soc— 1877, No. XXXII. 32 



