Home Life of the Glossy Ibis. 105 



extending down to the upper corner of the eye, where the 

 feathers come all the way down to the corner of the eye for 

 a space of about one quarter of an inch, starting' at the lower 

 corner of the eye the white streak extends down to the lower 

 side of the lower mandible. The band of white is broadest 

 across the top of the head, being" over three-sixteenths of an 

 inch wide, while the strip below the eye is barely an eighth of 

 an inch wide. In an adult bird in the breeding season this 

 skin is pure white and in the one mounted specimen I have 

 it stayed nearly full color for over seven months and had not 

 faded out over one quarter of its color when fresh. How long 

 this would have retained any whitish color is not known as I 

 had the part colored on the mounted bird just as it appeared 

 in the fresh skin. A good idea of this white space at the 

 base of the feathers can be seen from the two accompanying 

 photographs which were taken of the bird's head about twG 

 hours after being captured. I can find no record of anyone 

 describing this feature of the Glossy Ibis, with the exception 

 of Audubon who mentions about the skin being purplish white 

 in fresh specimens. The age of the bird has a lot to do with 

 the amount of white skin. An old bird will be conspicious 

 at a distance of one hundred feet while a bird a year old will 

 appear not to have any white at all until within a distance of 

 fifteen feet or less. Whether this white appears only in the 

 breeding season or not I am unable to tell, am inclined to be- 

 lieve that it is present only during the breeding season, but 

 like the White Ibis, which has the carmine bill and feet and 

 legs only in the breeding season. For a year after securing 

 my first specimen I was under the impression that I had the 

 White Faced Glossy Ibis, not ever having particularly ob- 

 served any specimens of that species. R. D. Hoyt of Seven 

 Oaks, Florida, put me right on this -point, however, and ex- 

 plained that the White Faced Glossy Ibis had white feathers 

 around the base of the bill, while the Glossy did not. 



The following observations were made during a period of 

 eight weeks, during which time I had two pairs of these birds 

 under daily surveillance. In looking for a suitable place to 



