THE WHITE IBIS. 



{Guar a alba.) 



I.YNDS JONKS. 



THE white ibis might well serve as 

 the text of a symposium upon 

 the evils of plume-hunting to 

 supply the constant demand of 

 the millinery trade. Suffice it to say 

 here that this species, in common with 

 many other members of its family, and 

 many other birds as well, has decreased 

 to the point of almost complete extermi- 

 nation within the last fifteen years from 

 this cause alone. Surely it must be true 

 that the living bird in its natural environ- 

 ment is far more pleasing to the aesthetic 

 sense than the few feathers which are re- 

 tained and put to an unnatural use. 



As lately as 1880 the white ibis was de- 

 cide(|ly numerous in the various rookeries 

 of the southern states, wandering as far 

 north as the Ohio river, and touching 

 southern Indiana and southern Illinois. 

 Two were seen as far north as southern 

 South Dakota. They are now scarcely 

 common even in the most favored lo- 

 calities in Louisiana and Texas, being 

 confined to the gulf states almost en- 

 tirely, and even there greatly restricted 

 locally. 



Like many of their near relatives, the 

 herons, the ibises not only roost together 

 in rookeries, but they also nest in greater 

 or less communities. Before their ranks 

 were 'so painfully thinned by the plume- 

 hunters, these nesting communities con- 

 tained hundreds and even thousands of 

 individuals. But now only small com- 

 panies can be found in out-of-the-way 

 places. 



The nest is built upon the mangrove 

 bushes or upon the broken reeds and 

 rushes in the swamps, and is said to be 

 rather more carefully and compactly 

 built than are the herons' nests. The 

 eggs are three or four, rarely five in 



number, and are laid about May i in 

 many localities, later in others. They 

 appear large for the bird. In shape they 

 are usually rather long ovate, and in 

 color are gray or ashy-blue, irregularly 

 and rather heavily blotched and spotted 

 with reddish and umber browns of vari- 

 ous shades. Some specimens are very 

 pretty. 



The story of their great abundance, 

 persecution, rapid decline, and almost 

 deaths if written, would read like some 

 horrible nightmare. Confident in the 

 apparent security of their ancestral gath- 

 ering-places, they fell an easy prey to the 

 avaricious plume-hunter who, from some 

 vantage point, used his almost noiseless 

 light rifle or air-gun with deadly effect, 

 tallying his victims by the hundred daily. 

 We are sometimes led to wonder if 

 there is anything so sacred as money. 



\ye might be able to derive some com- 

 fort from the thinning ranks of many of 

 our birds, perhaps, if we could be sure 

 that when these were gone the work of 

 extermination would cease. But when 

 one species disappears another, less at- 

 tractive before, will be set upon, and 

 thus the crusade, once begun, will finally 

 extend to each in turn. This is not the- 

 ory but fact. Nor will the work of ex- 

 termination cease with the demand for 

 plumes. Not until repeated refusals -of 

 offered plumes have impressed upon the 

 mind of the hunter the utter futility of 

 further activity in this line will he seek 

 some other occupation. It is a shame 

 upon us that killing birds should ever 

 have become an occupation of anyone. A 

 strong public sentiment against feather 

 adornments will yet save from destruc- 

 tion many of our native birds. Can we 

 ; not arouse it? 



