WOOD IBIS. 495 



The markings, always large, numerona and bold, are of different depths of dark choco- 

 late, bistre, and sepia brown, with the ordinary stone-gray shell spofa. They always 

 tend to aggregate at the larger end, or, at least, are more more numerous on the 

 major half of the eggs ; though in a few instances the distribntion is nearly uniform 

 Occasionally the butt end of the egg is almost completely occupied by confluence of Yory 

 dark markings. Eggs vary from 1.90 by 1.40 to 2.12 by 1.33, averaging abont 2.00 

 by 1,45." 



ORDER HERODIONES. HERONS AND THEIR 



ALLIES. 



FAMILY TANTALID.E. IBISES, ETC. 



Hallux gomew4iat reduced, lens perfectly incumbent than in ArdeiS^. Tarsi commonly 

 reticulate. Middle claw not pectinate. Lores, gular space and usually more of the 

 head, naked. IJill variously curved or with expanded tip. 



Sub-family Tantalise. Wood Ibises. 



Bill extremely stout at base, T#iere as wide as the face, gradually tapering to the 

 iecuTved Up. Tarsus reticulate. 



Gkihjs TANTALUS. Linnajus. 

 With characters of its sub-family. 



Tantalus loculatok L. 



"Wood. IbiH. 



Tantalus looulaior, Whkaton, Eeprint, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1861, 21, (probable). — COCBS, 

 Key, 1872, 263; Birds of N. W., 1874, 513.— Lakgdon, Cat. Birds of Gin., 1877, 15; 

 Bevised List, Journ. Cin. 8oc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183 ; Keprint, 17. — Jordan, Man. 

 Vert., 1878, 134. 



Tantalus loculalor, liiniUMVB, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 240. 



Adult with the head and part of the neck naked, corrugate, blnish ; legs blue ; bill 

 pale greenish ; plumage entirely white excepting the quills, tail, primary coverts and 

 alula which are glossy black; young with the head downy- feathered, the plumage 

 dark-gray, the quills and tail blacMsh ; length, abont 4 feet ; wing, 18-20 inches ; 

 bil), 8-9 ; tarsus, 7-8. 



Habitat, Sooth Atlantic and Gulf States, and across in corresponding latitudes to the 

 , Qoloradp Elver. North to Ohio, Illinois, and the Caroliaas. Accidentally to Wisconsin, 

 Pennsylvania, and New York, o'uba. Mexico. Central and South America. 



Bare visitor in spring, late summer and early fall. In 1861, 1 included 

 the Wood Ibis in my list of birds of probable occurrence on the authority 

 of Mr. Kirkpatrick, of Cleveland, who informed me that it had " perhaps 

 been shot in Southern Ohio." Dr. Coues, in his Key, gives its range 

 " North to Ohio and the Carolinas," apparently ignorant of the fact that 



