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THE WOOD IBIS 



Tantalus loculatob, Linn. 



PLATE CCXVI. Male. 



This very remarkable bird, and all others of the same genus that are 

 known to occur in the United States, are constant residents in some part 

 of our Southern Districts, although they perform short migrations. A 

 few of them now and then stray as far as the Middle States, but instances 

 of this are rare ; and I am not aware that any have been seen farther to 

 the eastward than the southern portions of Maryland, excepting a few 

 individuals of the Glossy and the White Ibises, which have been procured 

 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The Carohnas, Georgia, 

 the Floridas, Alabama, Lower Louisiana, including Opellousas, and Mis- 

 sissippi, are the districts to which they resort by preference, and in 

 which they spend the whole year. With the exception of the Glossy 

 Ibis, which may be looked upon as a bird of the Mexican territories, and 

 which usually appears in the Union singly or in pairs, they all live social- 

 ly in immense flocks, especially during the breeding season. The coun- 

 try which they inhabit is doubtless the best suited to their habits ; the 

 vast and numerous swamps, lagoons, bayous, and submersed savannahs 

 that occur in the lower parts of our Southern States, all abounding with 

 fishes and reptiles ; and the temperature of these countries being conge- 

 nial to their constitutions. 



In treating of the bird now under your notice, Mr William Bartram 

 says, " This solitary bii'd does not associate in flocks, but is generally seen 

 alone."" This was published by Wilson, and every individual who has 

 since written on the subject, has copied the assertion without probably 

 having any other reason than that he believed the authors of it to state a 

 fact. But the habits of this species are entirely at variance with the above 

 quotation, to which I direct your attention not without a feeling of pain, 

 being assured that Mr Bartram could have made such a statement only 

 because he had few opportunities of studying the bird in question in its 

 proper haunts. 



The Wood Ibis is rarely met with single, even after the breeding sea- 

 son, and it is more easv for a person to see an hundred together at anv 



