WHITE IBIS. 177 



primaries tipped with glossy black for several inches, while the female, 

 which is very little smaller than the male, has only four marked in this 

 manner. On examining more than a hundred individuals of each sex, I 

 found only four exceptions, which occurred in females that were veiy old 

 birds, and which, as happens in some other species, might perhaps have 

 been undergoing the curious change exhibited by ducks, pheasants, and 

 some other birds, the females of which when old sometimes assume the 

 livery of the males. 



Much, as you are aware, good Reader, has been said respecting the 

 " oil bags" of birds. I dislike controversy, simply because I never saw 

 the least indications of it in the ways of the Almighty Creator. Should 

 I err, forgive me, but my opinion is, that these organs were not made 

 without an object. Why should they consist of matter so conveniently 

 placed, and so disposed as to issue under the least pressure, through aper- 

 tures in the form of well defined tubes ^ The White Ibis, as well as the 

 Wood Ibis, and all the other species of this genus, when in full health, 

 has these oil bags of great size, and, if my eyes have not deceived me, 

 makes great use of their contents. Should you feel anxious to satisfy 

 yourself on this subject, I request of you to keep some Ibises alive for 

 several weeks, as I have done, and you will have an opportunity of judg- 

 ing. And again, tell me if the fat contained in these bags is not the very 

 best lip-salve that can be procured. 



When any species of Ibis with which I am acquainted falls into the 

 water on being wounded, it swims tolerably well ; but 1 have never ob- 

 served any taking to the water and swimming either by choice or to escape 

 pursuit. While in the company of Mr Joseph Mason, a young man who 

 was for some time employed by me, and who has drawn plants to some of 

 my birds, although not so successfully as my amiable friend Miss Martin, 

 or George Lehman, who finish those they draw as beautifully as my learn- 

 ed and valued friend William IMacgillivray of Edinburgh does his 

 faithful drawings of birds, I chanced one morning to be on the look-out for 

 White Ibises, in a delightful swamp not many miles from Bayou Sara. It 

 was in the end of summer, and all around was pure and calm as the clear 

 .sky, the bright azure of which was reflected by the lake before us. The 

 trees had already exchanged the verdure of their foliage for more mellow 

 tints of diversified hue ; the mast dropped from the boughs ; some of the 

 Warblers had begun to think of removing farther south ; the Night Hawk, 

 in company with the Chimney Swallow, was passing swiftly towards the 



VOL. III. M 



