PLATALEA.— EUDOCIMtrS. 191 



the Gulf" of Nicoya in Costa Rica, and thence is distributed, in places suitable to its 

 habits, over the greater part of the South-American continent. 



The Spoonbill is occasionally gregarious, sometimes breeding in large colonies ; at 

 other times it consorts and feeds in company with various species of Herons. Its 

 food consists of small fishes, water-insects, minute Crustacea, and shell-fish. The nests 

 are made of sticks, and placed on bushes and mangrove-trees, or on the reeds in 

 swamps. The eggs are two or three in number, dull white, with sepia-brown and 

 rufous spots. 



Fam. IBIDIDiE. 



The Ibises differ from the Herons in the same fundamental characters as do the 

 Spoonbills, and they have a similar schizorhinal skull. The form of the bill, however, 

 is quite different, and is described by Mr. Ridgway as follows : — " Bill slender, 

 attenuated terminally, nearly cylindrical or somewhat compressed, conspicuously 

 decurved, or arched above." 



This is a cosmopolitan family, inhabiting the temperate and tropical portions of 

 both hemisphei'es. The American genera are, for the most part, quite distinct 

 from those of the Old World, but the Glossy Ibis {Plegadis falcinellus) is found on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. The four other forms . mentioned in this volume are 

 strictly American. 



EUDOCIMUS. 

 Eudocimus, Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1232 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 39 (1898). 



The Ibididse are separable into two groups — those which have the front of the 

 tarsus reticulated, and those which have it plated with distinct transverse scales. 

 It is to this second section that the genus Eudocimus belongs. Like Plegadis, it has a 

 very short tail, not half the length of the wing, and exceeded by the feet, when the 

 latter are outstretched. The chin and upper throat are bare, as are also the forehead, 

 lores, sides of face, and region of the eye. 



Two species of Eudocimus are recognized — one of them, E. ruber, being the well- 

 known and brilliantly-coloured " Scarlet Ibis " of South America, while the other is 

 the White Ibis {E. albus), which is a more northern form. 



1. Eudocimus albus. 



Tie White Curlew, Catesby, N. Hist. Carol, i. p. 82, t. 82'. 



Tantalus albus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 242 \ 



Ibis alba, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xvi. p. 16^ Licht. Preis-Verz. Mex. Vog. p. 3^ Cab. J.f. 

 Orn. 1863, p. 59 = ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1857, p. 230 " ; Salv. Ibis, 1865, p. 192 ' ; Dresser, Ibis, 

 1866, p. 32 ' J Lawr. Mem. Host. See. N. H. ii. p. 809 ' ; id. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, 

 p. 48"; Sumichr. La Nat. v. p. 233 ". 



