^ 



TANTALIDyE, IBISES, SPOONBILLS. — GEN. 224, 225-6. 2G3 



at base, the hinder lengthened and inserted low down, as in storks and herons (not 

 cranes) ; middle claw not pectinate as in the herons. Chiefljr lacustrine and palus- 

 trine inhabitants of the warmer parts of the globe, feeding on iish, reptiles and 

 Other animals. The sexes are alike ; the 

 young dilferent. The manifest modification 

 of the bill is the principal external character 

 of the three subfamilies into which the group 

 is divisible. 



SuhfamAly TANTALINJE. Wood Ibises. 



Bill long, extremely stout at base, where 

 it is as broad as the face, gradually tapering 

 to the decarved tip, withont nasal groove or 

 membrane, the nostrils directly perforating 

 its substance. One genus and three or four 

 species of America, Africa, Southern Asia, ^ 

 and part of the East Indies. '' ,_,^- 



224. Genus TANTALUS Linnaeus. ^~- 



^'i Wood Ibis. Adult with head and ^"^•^''- ^^'°°"i^'«- 



part of the neck naked, corrugate, bluish; 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 aud tail blackish; about 4 feet long; wing 18-20 

 inches ; bill 8-9 ; tarsus 7-8. Wooded swampy places in the Southern 

 states, N. to Ohio and the Carolinas, W. to the Colorado, abundant; grega- 

 rious; nests in trees and bushes. WiLS., viii, 39, pi. 66; Nutt., ii, 82; 

 Aud., vi, G4, pi. 361 ; Bd., 682 loculator. 



Subfamily IBIDINJE. Ibises. 



Bill long, very slender, curved throughout, and grooved nearly or quite to the 

 tip (thus closely resembling a curlew's). There are about twenty species of ibises, 

 among which minor details of form vary consideraltly, nearly every one of them 

 having been made the type of some genus. Thej^ probablj' form two genera, Ihis, with 

 the tarsi scutellate in front, and Geronticus, with the legs entirely reticulate. Our 

 species vary in the nakedness of the head, which in one is little more than in the 

 herons, and in none is it complete, as in the preceding and following genus. 



225-6. Genus IBIS Moehring. 



u. i-j ^ Glossy Ibis. Plumage rich dark chestnut, changing to glossy dark green 

 with purplish reflections ou the head, wings and elsewhere; bill dark; 

 young similar, much duller, or grayish-brown, especially on the head aud 

 ueck, which are white-streaked. Claws slender, nearly straight; head bare 

 only about the eyes and between the forks of the jaw. Length about 2 feet ; 

 wing 10-11; tail 4; bill 4^-; tarsus 3 J- ; middle toe and claw 3. U. S., 

 generally but irregularly distributed, chiefly southerly and especially coast- 

 wise ; N. casually to New England. Bonap., Am. Orn. iv, 23, pi. 23; 

 Nutt., ii, 88; Aud., vi, 50, 358; Bd., 685. . falcinellus var. ordii. 



