WHITE IBIS. 175 



While breeding, the White Ibises go to a great distance in search of 

 food for their young, flying in flocks of several hundreds. Their excursions 

 take place at particular periods, determined by the decline of the tides, 

 when all the birds that are not sitting go off", perhaps twenty or thirty 

 miles, to the great mud flats, where they collect abundance of food, with 

 which they return the moment the tide begins to flow. As the birds of 

 this genus feed by night as well as by day, the White Ibis attends the 

 tides at whatever hour they may be. Some of those which bred on Sandy 

 Key would go to the keys next the Atlantic, more than forty miles dis- 

 tant, while others made for the Ever Glades ; but they never went off 

 singly. They rose with common accord from the breeding-ground, form- 

 ing themselves into long lines, often a mile in extent, and soon disappear- 

 ed from view. Soon after the turn of the tide we saw them approaching 

 in the same order. Not a note could you have heard on those occasions ; 

 yet if you disturb them when far from their nests, they utter loud hoarse 

 cries resembling the syllables hunk, hunk, hunk, either while on the ground 

 or as they fly off. 



The flight of the White Ibis is rapid and protracted. Like all other 

 species of the genus, these birds pass through the air with alternate flap- 

 pings and sailings ; and I have thought that the use of either mode de- 

 pended upon the leader of the flock, for, with the most perfect regularity, 

 each individual follows the motion of that preceding it, so that a constant 

 appearance of regular undulations is produced through the whole line. 

 If one is shot at this time, the whole line is immediately broken up, and for 

 a few minutes all is disorder ; but as they continue their course, they 

 soon resume their former arrangement. The wounded bird never at- 

 tempts to bite or to defend itself in any manner, although, if only winged, 

 it runs off" with more speed than is pleasant to its pursuer. 



At other times the White Ibis, like the Red and the Wood Ibises, 

 rises to an immense height in the air, where it performs beautiful evolu- 

 tions. After they have thus, as it were, amused themselves for some 

 time, they glide down with astonishing speed, and alight either on trees 

 or on the ground. Should the sun be shining, they appear in their full 

 beauty, and the glossy black tips of their wings form a fine contrast with 

 the yellowish- white of the rest of their plumage. 



This species is as fond of resorting to the ponds, bayous, or lakes that 

 are met with in the woods, as the Wood Ibis itself I have found it 



