Home Life of the Glossy Ibis. 107 



pass him in the air sometimes twenty-five feet from the nest. 

 The male would always fly directly to the highest twig above 

 the nest and after about five minutes of careful preening his 

 feathers he would give three or four calls in a medium tone 

 and spring down to the nest, stand a few minutes examining 

 the eggs and then go stalking- through the bushes until he 

 found a twig that suited him, break it off with his bill and take 

 it back to the nest and after placing it on top settle down to 

 a three hour job of incubating, getting off the nest, however, 

 usually once during that time and getting another twig to add 

 to the nest. The female would return and give her bleating 

 note about fifty feet from the nest when the male would stand 

 up and wait for her to alight in the bush over the nest, then 

 would ensue about fifteen minutes of as neat courting and 

 billing and cooing as one will ever see being done by a pair of 

 doves. This loving disposition towards each other seems to 

 be characteristic of the Glossy Ibis as every pair that I have 

 observed have done it. The White Ibis will occasionally do it 

 but not for any such length of time as the Glossy. They will 

 stand erect and seem to rub their bill against the other one, 

 all the time making cooing (gutteral, I must admit) notes of 

 endearment, they will preen each others feathers and act just 

 like a couple of young ■ humans on their honeymoon ; these 

 loving scenes continued until the young were able to fly, never 

 seeming to diminish at all. This trait I certainly admire and 

 while it is known to exist in birds that mate for life, is seldom 

 seen in birds that are supposed to mate only for a season. 



After the pair that laid only three eggs had been sitting 

 five days the female laid her fourth tgg. This seemed to me 

 to be very unusual. After this episode I decided to devote all 

 my time to this pair and moved my blind to a point of vantage 

 at a distance of about ten feet. I still had the other nest in 

 view but not in a position where it could be conveniently 

 photographed, so all these photographs were taken from the 

 pair that had originally had three eggs. 



After twenty-one days had elapsed three of the eggs 

 hatched. The same routine was carried on, however, as when 



