316 HERONS, STORKS, AND IBISES, 
recurved process behind its articulation with the skull, instead of being truncated 
as in the storks; the skull has a pair of small vacuities on the occipital surface ; 
and the nasal apertures are in the form of extremely long slits (shizorhinal), in 
place of being ovals. Finally, the furcula resembles that of the storks. All these 
birds associate in large companies, and differ from the typical members of the 
preceding family in their habit of probing about with their beaks in water in 
search of food, till they come in contact with some object, which is then seized. 
They nest in trees, and lay white eggs. 
Owing to the general interest attaching to the sacred ibis, and 
likewise from the gorgeous coloration of the scarlet ibis of America, 
the ibises are some of the best known representatives of the order under considera- 
tion. These birds, of which there are several genera, form a subfamily characterised 
by the slender and nearly 
cylindrical beak, which 
tapers gradually towards 
the tip, and is more or 
less arched from its base. 
In all of them the head is 
more or less bald, although 
occasionally only the lores 
are naked; and _ they 
generally have plume-like 
scapular feathers at the 
hinder end of the back. 
The sacred ibis of Africa 
([bis ethiopica) is the 
type of a genus char- 
acterised by the very 
long and moderately 
HEAD OF BERNIER’S IBIS. (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1870.) stout bill: the long wing, 
in which the _ second 
quill is slightly longer than the third; the short, twelve-feathered tail; and 
the- general white hue of the plumage. The African species attains a length 
of about 29 inches, and has the naked head and neck black, while the plumose 
feathers of the back and the tips of the quills are greenish black; the rest of 
the plumage being white, tinged here and there with buff It is represented 
by the closely-allied black headed ibis (2. melanocephala) in India; while in 
Madagascar there is Bernier’s ibis (J. bernierz), distinguished by the much smaller 
extent of the naked black portion of the neck; and a third species (J. stricti- 
pennis) inhabits Australia. The Japanese ibis (Nippenoa nippon) differs by 
having only the face bare of feathers; it inhabits both Japan and China. 
Although so common in the country of the Pharaohs during its times of 
ereatness, the sacred ibis is now unknown in Egypt; and Leith Adams has doubts 
whether it was ever indigenous there. As he observes: “ There could have been no 
difficulty in procuring individuals from the shores of the Red Sea; and to a people 
so well practised in taming wild animals (as were the ancient Egyptians), we may 
Ibises, 






