ANASTOMUS OSCITANS. 213 
them, notwithstanding that they had been opening their bills 
threateningly and making a clattering noise whilst he was still 
some yards below them. 
Nor do they, as their brethren of Ceylon seem to do, keep a 
tree to themselves, at least not invariably. At Mohar, about 30 
miles from Cawnpore, on an immense tamarind tree, Shell- 
eaters, and the White Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) breed 
sociably together ; the nests of the latter can however at once be 
distinguished by their smaller size. 
The changes of plumage, and the change in the bill of the 
Shell Ibis, have misled both Colonel Sykes and Dr. Jerdon, vide 
“Birds of India,” Vol. III. : 
To take the plumage first—that of the nestling is a light grey, 
a little darker on the head and neck, where the feathers are 
short and the webs hair-like: the upper back, winglet, prima- 
ries, secondaries, tertials, scapulars, and tail are black ; shot with 
green and purple reflections; the naked skin about the chin, 
and base of the beak and the orbits, is greenish black; the bill, 
dark green; the legs, brown, tinged with pinky red (but generally 
covered by a whitish scurf of dirt and droppings) and the irides, 
brown. As the bird grows older, the grey assumes a lighter 
color, the black of the back disappears, and the irides get a dark- 
er brown. In May, through an actual change of color in the 
feathers themselves, the grey becomes pure white, and 
this is the breeding plumage, which lasts till the beginning of 
September, when the bird moults, and again assumes the grey 
phase of plumage. 
Secondly as to the beak—in the nestling this measurs 3°20 
inches to 3:40 inches taken from the gape, but increases rapidly, 
as in one shot in October it measured 4°10 inches ; and in the 
adult measures sometimes as much as 7 inches. As is well- 
known the bills of old birds are characterized by a gape in the 
centre of the commissure, which, however, does not exist in the 
young, notwithstanding Colonel Sykes’, and Dr. Jerdon’s state- 
ments to the contrary. My belief is they were misled by 
seeing the old birds in grey plumage and taking them for 
young. It is not till the bird is four or five months old that this 
gape begins to show itself. 
I give outline sketches* of the beaks of birds of different ages 
in my collection, which show the gradual development of the 
gape. 
That this is caused by attrition from the shell-fish they chief- 
ly feed on, I have not in my own mind the slightest doubt, but 
then Dr. Jerdon gives his opinion to the contrary founded 
chiefly on the mistaken idea of the gape existing in the young, 
* Not received.—Ep., S. F. 
