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Mr. C. Barnby Smith



desire to nest. I accordingly placed them in a small grass run

apart from other birds, and they very soon made a small “ scrape ”

for a nest quite close to where the gate of the run opened. I knew

this would never succeed, and after some trouble induced them to

adopt a better nesting site, where four eggs were laid. My hopes

were then great, but, alas, a small rat managed to squeeze into the

run and accounted for all the eggs. I shortly afterwards took out

the parent birds and foolishly placed them in a run with some other

non-nesting Cayenne Plover. The hen was killed within four hours,

and the cock had to be taken out (a disreputable looking bleeding

object) to recover in solitude.


2. My Glossy Ibis make some half serious attempts at

nesting every summer, but so far it has always been a case of

“ much cry and little wool.” I have provided them with a large

nesting platform about four feet from the ground and consisting

of wire netting (slightly dished) covered with birch twigs and

rushes, and I always give fresh loose material each season. This

season the nesting operations extended from mid-April to the end

of July—both cock and hen continually moving the twigs and

rushes and piling them into a little heap in one corner of the

platform. They would often both seize the same twig and pull in

opposite directions with small net result. At other times the cock

would stand on the edge of the nest with his back feathers stiffly

erected and with repeated bowings of the head and loud croaks

call upon the hen bird to come and join him at the nest. Both cock

and hen spent much time sitting on the nest, and in the end four

eggs were laid at considerable intervals of time. One of the eggs

(a soft one) was laid on the ground. The cock bird especially

seemed wildly excited over the other three eggs, and (with curiously

misplaced energy) would never allow them to remain in the nest,

but repeatedly pushed them with his beak out of the nest, and

occasionally, off the platform altogether. I tried replacing several of

them, but without the least good result. The birds are in pei’fect

health and quite tame. I much wish they were either less perverse

or I understood better their normal nesting habits. I have asked a

gentleman in the south of Spain if my methods could be improved

to ensure the Ibis nesting better, but he says the nest provided he



