plataleidj:. 199 



visitor to tho "West of England, where it was never seen so often as it used 

 to be on the shores of the Eastern Counties. Two Devonshire specimens, 

 which belonged to Col. Montagu, are still to be seen in the National Col- 

 lection of JJritish Eirds at South Kensington, looking as fresh as if they 

 had been shot only yesterday, there being something in the metallic-coloured 

 plumage of this bird which seems to resist the fading properties of light. 

 We have never had the fortune to come across a Glossy Ibis ourselves, but 

 we handled one which was still warm at Budlcigh Salterton, in South Devon, 

 in Sept. 1S6G. We met a sailor carrying the bird in one hand and a gun 

 in the other, who told us that he had seen it that morning on a strip of 

 sand at the mouth of the Otter. After his dinner he had taken a gun and 

 had found the bird at the same place. It was very tame, allowing him to 

 walk up to it and shoot it, and he had a few moments before we came up sold 

 it to somebody for a shilling ! We know of only one example of the Glossy 

 Ibis from Xorth Devon, but several have occurred in the south of the county, 

 of which we give particulars below. Some half-dozen specimens have been 

 obtained in Cornwall. We saw two, almost in perfect adult plumage, in 

 the Museum at Truro ; one bore no record of capture, but the other was 

 labelled as having been shot at Hayle. »Several have occurred in 

 Dorsetshire. The Somerset Peat Moors have produced a couple of 

 examjDles ; one of them, shot at Shapwick in 1859, is now in the collection 

 of Sir H. Harpur Crewe, Bart., at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. 



Of the Devonshire examples two were obtained inland at a considerable 

 distance from the coast. One shot at Holsworthy, Sept. 7th, 1851, was 

 recorded in the ' Western Times ' for Oct. 11th, 1851. Another was shot at 

 Bridestow, on the IS". W. borders of Dartmoor, in October 1835. 



The Glossy Ibis used to go by various names, all of them descriptive of 

 stages in its plumage : the Glossy Ibis is the immature bird ; the Green 

 Ibis is the bird advancing towards maturity ; while the Bay Ibis, with 

 the head and neck of a bright bay colour, is the adult. In their full 

 plumage these birds are a deep maroon-red, with brilliant green and purple 

 reflections on the wing-coverts and tertials. Specimens obtained in this 

 country mostly belong to the Glossy Ibis, or immature stage. The home 

 of this bird, in the summer, is the South of Europe, the marshes of the 

 Danube, &c. 



Montagu mentions three immature specimens sliot in Devonshire: one in Mr- 

 Comyns's collection [slioton the Exe, ISO.J] ; anot.lier near Ivybridge, in middle of Sept. 

 180.') ; and the third near Plymouth, about ll'lh Oct. 180!) ('J'rans. Linn. Soc. ix. ]). 1!»8, 

 and Orn. Diet.). Onesiiot near Warleigh on the Tamar, and a pair killed at Slapton 

 Lev. near Dartmouth (E. M,, Trans. I'lym. Tnst. l.S.SO, p. .'JlT) ; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, 

 p. 31!)). One at Uridfstow, <M. 183."» (,r. 0. H.. Nat. Hist. S. J)."von, p. 211 ). An imma- 

 ture bird captiircfl at 15iatcliboro, near Kolswort hv, .Sept. 7lh, 1S.")1 (W'. T., ' Naturalist,' 

 18.Vi, p. 1!) ; .1. li. R., Trans. Plym. In.st. IHC.2 ('>:',, p. H> ; Morris, ]}. Birds, iv. p. 172). 

 Tiiis specimen is now in the A. M. M., where tiiero is also one ■•••(i/<l to have occurred 

 near.Soutli Molton in Oct. 18.")!. An immature bird wjis obtained at the moutii (ifthe 

 Kiver Ott<?r, Oct. 1 Ith, l8);i; (Zool. I8(ii;, ]). .')L'4). One shot on the Dart not far from 

 Tufnes, Sept. 'JOth, 18'">!)(Von \{.,Z(,o]. lK(i'.), p. 11)17). is in the collect ii.n of .Mr. J. IF. 

 Gurncy. A Glossy Ibis in the collection of the late .Sir. .1. Elliot, of Kingsbridge, was 

 shot on the estuary there, but the date wjis not recorded. About 1S70 one was seen 

 in liie autumn at Thurli'?<tone Ley by a hunting party, A gun was borrowed, but proved 

 80 rusty that it refused to go oir(E. A. S. E.). 



