I02 CICONIIFORMES chap. 



T. melanopis, differing in its rufous breast, inhabits America 

 from Peru and Brazil southwards ; T. Iranickii being probably 

 identical. Bostri/chia carunculata of North-East Africa is greenish- 

 brown with metallic reflexions and white on the wing-coverts, 

 the crested head and under surface having whitish margins to the 

 feathers, and the bill, feet, and a long thin gular caruncle lieing red. 

 Hagedashia har/edash, of the Ethiopian Eegion generally, is some- 

 what similar but brighter, with no white on the wing and no 

 crest or wattle ; the dusky lores are bare and warty, the bill is 

 black with crimson base to the culmen, and the feet are chiefly 

 red. Geronticus calvus of South Africa, except for its shorter 

 crest and greenish-white fore-neck, is not unlike Comaiihis camata 

 of Northern Africa, Arabia, and the Euphrates, which is metallic 

 greenish-black with a large bronzy-red patch on each wing, a fine 

 nuchal tuft of narrow feathers, red bill, feet, and bare skin of the 

 head and throat. There is some question here as to the colour of 

 the naked spaces. Nipponia nippion, of East Siberia, Corea, Japan, 

 China, and Formosa, is white with pinkish remiges and rectrices ; 

 a long pendent crest graces the nape, the bare face is vermilion, 

 the bill black with red tip, while the feet are ligliter red. 

 G^-aptocepJialus davisoni of the Burmese Countries and Cochin 

 China and Inocotis papillosus of India are both dusky brown, 

 with bluish-black wings and tail, a white patch on the wing- 

 coverts, greyish bill, and red feet ; but whereas in the former the 

 black naked head is separated by a bare bluish-white collar from 

 the neck, in the latter the hinder crown is dotted with red 

 papillae. Ccwphibis spinicollis of Avistralia is black with purple 

 and coppery sheen, the sides of the downy neck, the tail, and the 

 abdomen being white, and the feathers of the chest, which are 

 converted into stiff straw-like processes, yellowish. The naked 

 head and throat are black, the bill is black with brown bars at 

 the base, the tibiae are crimson, and the metatarsi dusky. The 

 huge Thaumatibis gigantea of Cochin China is blackish-brown 

 glossed with green, and shows much grey on the wing ; the 

 scapulars are decomposed and the head and upper neck bare ; the 

 nape is crossed by black bars, and the bill and feet are dull red. 

 Ihis aethiopica, the Sacred Ibis of the ancient Egyptians, of 

 which mummies are so often found in the temples, represented to 

 that people the moon-god Thoth, and is now the Abou-Hannes or 

 " Father John " of Abyssinia. It inhabits the Ethiopian Eegion, 



