88 NESTS AND EGGS OP 



States that tlie ibises, being disturbed, rose in immense numbers, and 

 a more striking spectacle than a large flock of these splendid birds 

 floating through the air, like a crimson cloud, cannot possibly be con- 

 ceived. The rookeries are only tenanted during the dry season. 



The eggs are two or three in number, grayish-white in color, 

 marked with spots and blotches of brown of varying shades, and dis- 

 tributed variously over the surface, but generally more profusely at the 

 larger end. The average size is 2.15 x 1.46. 



186. Plegadis autumnalis (Hasselq.) [503.] 



Glossy rbls. 



Hab. Old World, West Indies, and Eastern United States. 



This species occurs irregularly in the eastern portions of the 

 United States, and has been known to breed in Florida. It has also 

 been found breeding in Nevada. In Europe the course of its migra- 

 tions for the summer is said to be chiefly in a line from Egypt, to 

 Turkey, Hungary and Poland, and to the southern parts of Russia. In 

 its passage from Africa it is occasionally seen in the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago, in Sicily, Sardinia, Genoa, Switzerland, France, Holland and 

 Great Britain. 



The nesting of the Glossy Ibis is like that of the next species. 

 The eggs are of a deep greenish-blue and average 2.01 x 1.47. 



187. Plegadis guarauna (Linn.) [504.] 



^n^hite-faoed Qlossy Ibis. 



Hab. Western United States (Texas, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, California, etc.), southward to Mexico, 

 West Indies, Central and South America. 



This beautiful, lustrous Ibis inhabits southwestern United States 

 and south into tropical America. It is found as far north as Kansas, 

 west through New Mexico and Arizona to California. It is especially 

 abundant in southern Texas, and in some localities along the banks of 

 the Rio Grande swarms by thousands. At this place Dr. James C. 

 Merrill, in company with Mr. G. B. Sennett, on the i6th of May, 1877, 

 visited a large patch of tule reeds, growing in a shallow lagoon about 

 ten miles from Fort Brown, in which large numbers of this Ibis 

 and several kinds of Herons were breeding. The reeds covered an 

 area of perhaps seventy-five acres or less. Besides the Ibises, the 

 Great and Little White Egrets, Louisiana and Night Herons, and sev- 

 eral other birds were breeding here. The reeds grew about six feet 

 above the surface of the water, and were either beaten down to form a 

 support for the nests, or dead and partly floating stalks of the previous 

 year were used for that purpose. Dr. Merrill states that it was impos- 



