Home Life of the Glossy Ibis. 115 



Bro't 



forward. 



412 



752 



707 



39 



86 



Age 













No. of 



days 



Cut 



Worms 



Grasshoppers 



Crayfish 



Snakes 



Meals 



19 







162 



71 



1 



8 



20 .... 







172 



81 



5 



8 



21 







160 



72 



3 



8 



DO 







193 



37 



7 



8 



23 







208 



30 



6 



8 



24 .... 







47 



96 



9 



8 



25 







23 



108 



13 



77 

 23 

 29 



8 

 10 

 18 



8 



2() 





8 



2!) 





12 



27 







76 

 16 



93 



38 



9 



17 



8 



28 .... 





12 



29 







13 



29 



18 



12 



30 .... 







34 



37 



15 



12 



412 1964 1391 147 194 



Total of 3914 vermin in 194 meals, or an average of 20 to 

 each meal. As the young would average seven meals apiece 

 each day this would mean twenty-eight meals, and twenty 

 vermin to the meal would make 560 vermin for a day's feed 

 for the young alone. The parents fed these young for about 

 fifty days, making the total of vermin destroyed by this one 

 nest of birds about 28,000, and this is saying nothing of what 

 the old birds ate, which would be at least half of what the 

 youngsters devoured, making a total of 42,000 vermin eaten 

 while rearing one nest of young. When we stop to think that 

 there were about nine thousand pairs of Ibis, including both 

 the White and Glossy on this lake in 1912 that successfully 

 reared nests of young, one can hardly conceive of the many 

 millions of noxious insects and vermin of all kinds destroyed. 

 The vast amount of good to any section of the country where 

 this vast army of Ibis nests can hardly be reckoned in dol- 

 lars. The cut worms and grasshoppers we all know what 

 great damage to growing crops they do ; the crayfish de- 

 stroys the spawn of fish, which in turn live off the eggs and 

 young mosquitos. The deduction is self-evident to anyone 



