174 WHITE IBIS. 



easily breaks with its bill ; the interior, which is flat, being finished with 

 leaves of the cane and some other plants. The bird breeds only once in 

 the year, and the full number of its eggs is three. They measure two 

 inches and a quarter in length, with a diameter of one inch and five- 

 eighths, are rough to the touch, although not granulated, of a dull white 

 colour, blotched with pale yellow, and irregularly spotted with deep reddish- 

 brown. They afford excellent eating, although when boiled they do not look 

 inviting, the white resembling a livid-coloured jelly, and the yolk being of a 

 reddish-orange, the former wonderfully transparent, instead of being opaque 

 like that of most other birds. The eggs are deposited from the 1 0th of April 

 to the 1st of May, and incubation is general by the 10th of the latter month. 

 The young birds, which are at first covered with thick down of a dark 

 grey colour, are fed by regurgitation. They take about five weeks to be 

 able to fly, although they leave the nest at the end of three weeks, and 

 stand on the branches, or on the ground, waiting the arrival of their pa- 

 rents with food, which consists principally of small fiddler crabs and cray- 

 fish. On some occasions, I have found them at this age miles away from 

 the breeding- places, and in this state they are easily caught. As soon as 

 the young are able to provide for themselves, the old birds leave them, 

 and the different individuals are then seen searching for food apart. 

 While nestling or in the act of incubating, these Ibises are extremely gen- 

 tle and unwary," unless they may have been much disturbed, for they al- 

 most allow you to touch them on the nest. The females are silent all the 

 while, but the males evince their displeasure by uttering sounds which 

 greatly resemble those of the White-headed Pigeon, and which may be 

 imitated by the syllables crooh, croo, croo. The report of a gun scarcely 

 alarms them at first, although at all other periods these birds are shy and 

 vigilant in the highest degree. 



The change in the colouring of the bill, legs, and feet of this bird, 

 that takes place in the breeding- season, is worthy of remark, the bill be- 

 ing then of a deep orange red, and the legs and feet of a red nearly 

 amounting to carmine. The males at this season have the gular pouch 

 of a rich orange colour, and somewhat resembling in shape that of the 

 Frigate Pelican, although proportionally less. During winter, these parts 

 are of a dull flesh colour. The irides also lose much of their clear blue, 

 and resume in some degree the umber colour of the young birds. I am 

 thus particular in these matters, because it is doubtful if any one else has 

 ever paid attention to them. 



