130 WOOD IBIS. 



the wily cougar is stealthily advancing toward one of the Ibises, which he 

 expects to carry off into the thicket. Through the dim light your eye 

 catches a glimpse of the white-plumaged birds, moving rapidly like spec- 

 tres to and fro. The loud clacking of their mandibles apprises you of the 

 havock they commit among the terrified inhabitants of the waters, while 

 the knell-like sounds of their feet come with a feeling of dread. Move, 

 gently or not, move at all, and you infallibly lose your opportunity of 

 observing the actions of the birds. Some old male has long marked you ; 

 whether it has been with eye or with ear, no matter. The first stick 

 your foot cracks, his hoarse voice sounds the alarm. Off they all go, 

 battering down the bending canes with their powerful pinions, and break- 

 ing the smaller twigs of the trees, as they force a passage for themselves. 



Talk to me of the stupidity of birds, of the dulness of the Wood Ibis ! 

 say it is fearless, easily approached, and easily shot. I listen, but it is 

 merely through courtesy ; for I have so repeatedly watched its movements, 

 in all kinds of circumstances, that I am quite convinced we have not in 

 the United States a more shy, wary, and vigilant bird than the Wood 

 Ibis. In the course of two years spent, I may say, among them, for I 

 saw some whenever I pleased during that period, I never succeeded in 

 surprising one, not even under night, when they were roosting on trees at 

 a height of nearly a hundred feet, and sometimes rendered farther secure 

 by being over extensive swamps. 



My Journal informs me, that, one autumn while residing near Bay- 

 ou Sara, being intent on procuring eight or ten of these birds, to skin 

 for my learned and kind friend the Prince of Musignano, I took with me 

 two servants, who were first-rate woodsmen, and capital hands at the rifle, 

 and that notwithstanding our meeting with many hundreds of Wood Ibi- 

 ses, it took us three days to shoot fifteen, which were for the most part 

 killed on wing with rifle-balls, at a distance of about a hundred yards. 

 On that occasion we discovered that a flock roosted regularly over a large 

 corn field covered with huge girted trees, the tops of which were almost 

 all decayed. We stationed ourselves apart in the field, concealed among 

 the tall ripened com, and in silence awaited the arrival of the birds. 

 After the sun had disappeared, the broad front of a great flock of Ibises 

 was observed advancing towards us. They soon alighted in great num- 

 bers on the large branches of the dead trees ; but whenever one of the 

 branches gave way under their weight, all at once rose in the air, flew 

 about several times, and alighted again. One of my companions, having 



