WOOD IBIS. 12'J 



period of the year, than to meet with one by itself. Nay, I have seen 

 flocks composed of several thousands, and that there is a natural necessity 

 for their flocking together I shall explain to you. This species feeds en- 

 tirely on fish and aquatic reptiles, of which it destroys an enormous quan- 

 tity, in fact more than it eats ; for if they have been killing fish for half 

 an hour and have gorged themselves, they suffer the rest to lie on the 

 water untouched, when it becomes food for alligators, crows, and vultures, 

 whenever these animals can lay hold of it. To procure its food, the 

 Wood Ibis walks through shallow muddy lakes or bayous in numbers. 

 As soon as they have discovered a place abounding in fish, they dance as 

 it were all through it, until the water becomes thick with the mud stirred 

 from the bottom by their feet. The fishes, on rising to the surface, are 

 instantly struck by the beaks of the Ibises, which, on being deprived of 

 life, they turn over and so remain. In the course of ten or fifteen minutes, 

 hundreds of fishes, frogs, young alligators, and water-snakes cover the 

 surface, and the birds greedily swallow them until they are completely 

 gorged, after which they walk to the nearest margins, place themselves in 

 long rows, with their breasts all turned towards the sun, in the manner of 

 Pelicans and Vultures, and thus remain for an hour or so. When diges- 

 tion is partially accomplished, they all take to wing, rise in spiral circlings 

 to an immense height, and sail about for an hour or more, performing 

 the most beautiful evolutions that can well be conceived. Their long 

 necks and legs are stretched out to their full extent, the pure white of 

 their plumage contrasts beautifully with the jetty black of the tips of their 

 wings. Now in large circles they seem to ascend toward the upper regions 

 of the atmosphere ; now, they pitch towards the earth ; and again, gently 

 rising, they renew their gyrations. Hunger once more induces them to 

 go in search of food, and, with extended front, the band sails rapidly to- 

 wards another lake or bayou. 



Mark the place, reader, and follow their course through cane-brake, 

 cypress-swamp, and tangled wood. Seldom do they return to the same 

 feeding place on the same day. You have reached the spot, and are 

 standing on the margin of a dark-Avatered bayou, the sinuosities of which 

 lead your eye into a labyrinth ending in complete darkness. The tall 

 canes bow to each other from the shores ; the majestic trees above them, 

 all hung with funereal lichen, gently wave in the suffbcating atmosphere ; 

 the bullfrog, alarmed, shrinks back into the Mater ; the alhgator raises 

 his head above its surface, probably to see if the birds have arrived, and 



VOL. III. . I 



