GLOSSY IBIS. 609 



wanderer who has lost his way. It exists in Mexico, however, in vast 

 numbers. In the spring of 1837, I saw flocks of it in the Texas ; but 

 even there it is merely a summer resident, associating with the White 

 Ibis, along the grassy margins of the rivers and bayous, and apparently 

 going to and returning from its roosting places in the interior of the 

 country. Its flight resembles that of its companion, the White Ibis, 

 and it is probable that it feeds on the same kinds of crustaceous ani- 

 mals, and breeds on low bushes in the same great associations as 

 that species, but we unfortunately had no opportunity of verifying this 

 conjecture. Mr Nuttall, in his Ornithology of the United States and 

 Canada, says that " a specimen has occasionally been exposed for sale 

 in the market of Boston." 



I have given the figure of a male bird in superb plumage, procur- 

 ed in Florida, near a wood- cutter's cabin, a view of which is also given. 



Tantalus Falcinellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i.'p. 241. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. 



p. 707. 

 Ibis Falcinellus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat — Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of 



Birds of United States, p. 311. — Wagler, Syst. Avium. 

 Gi-ossY Ibis, Ibis Falcinellus, Ch. Bonap. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. p. 23. 

 Tantalus igneus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 649. — Lath. Ind. Ornitli. vol. ii. p. 708. 



Adult. 

 Tantalus vikidis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 648. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 707. 



Young. 

 NuMENius castaneus, BHss. vol. v. p. 329. Adult. 

 NuMENius viRiDis, Briss. vol. v. p. 326. Young. 

 Tantalus Mexicanus ? Ord, .Journal of Acad, of Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. i. 



p. 53. 

 Bay or Glossy Ibis, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 88. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXXVII. 



Bill very long, slender, higher than broad, compressed, tapering, 

 acute, obtuse. Upper mandible with the dorsal line arched in its 

 whole length, the ridge convex, broader towards the end, the sides at 

 the base nearly erect, towards the end very convex and narrow, the 

 rido-e separated in its whole length from the sides by a deep narrow 

 o-roove, the edges inflected and shai'p. Nostrils basal, dorsal, linear, 

 direct. Lower mandible more slender than the upper, its angle very 

 narrow, and protracted in the form of a groove to the tip, the sides 

 VOL. IV. a q 



