SPOON-BILLS— IBISES. 2S7 



proceeded from the centre of the island, and I shall not easily forget the 

 sight we beheld when we reached it. 



" There, on the pressed-down boughs of the willows, only a few feet above 

 the water, were hundreds of great flit nests of the various kinds of Herons, 

 Spoon-bills, Egrets, Bitterns, etc., all huddled together in one confused 

 mass, and the entire colony reeking with the most indescribably filthy 

 smell. 



"It was rather late for eggs, as most of them were hatched off; but was 

 just the time to observe the doings of the children of these sedate, quiet, 

 peaceful-looking birds, and I must say that I never yet beheld such a collec- 

 tion of little fiends, nor a more hideous set. 



"Their bodies were of ihe smallest proportions, while every other part of 

 them — their wings, legs, necks, and beaks — were of the longest. Most of 

 them had no feathers, and all seemed possessed with one idea, and that was 

 either to limb a small brother or swallow him whole, and all kept up either 

 a shriek of fear or pain or a yell of rage. Floating on the top of the putrid 

 water were masses of dead birds, some with legs torn off, others without 

 heads or wings. Most of them were dead, but others were dragging their 

 maimed carcases about in a ghastly manner. So intent were they on their 

 fiendish pastime that they took little notice of us, and dragged and clawed 

 themselves about after their weaker brethren at our very feet, whilst the old 

 parent bird sit looking on from the topmost twigs as if fratricide were the 

 proper moral pastime of the young. A big Spoon-bill would chase a small 

 Egret from bough to bough till at last he tired it out, and then seizing it 

 with one claw, would take hold of its leg or wing and tear it from the poor 

 victim, or else, getting its head in its mouth, would try to swallow it whole, 

 and gulp and gulp till so much of the little one was down its throat that it 

 was itself choked, and would turn over on its back, kicking and struggling, 

 to be in turn seized by a brother and torn limb from limb. 



" All uttered up some hideous scream, and all kept clambering and 

 dragging themselves about from bough to bough, either hunting or being 

 hunted, and from what we saw I am sure that nine-tenths of all hatched in 

 that colony came to an untimely end before they could fly. We did not stay 

 long to watch them, but quickly securing some eggs from the few nests that 

 were not hatched off we beat a retreat, with our opinions of the beautiful, 

 gentle-looking birds greatly changed." , 



The Ibises are easily distinguished from the Spoon-bills by the shape of 

 their bills, which are long and curved, and have the nasal groove extending 

 nearly the whole length of the bill, which is soft, except- 

 ing at the extreme tip. The bill in some of the Ibises The Ibises. — 

 is indeed very like that of a Curlew (Numeiiiiis), and one Family Ihiduhc. 

 genus of the Charadriiformes, Ujiihirhynchiis, is so like an 

 Ibis, that externally its characters would ally it to the latter group of birds 

 rather than to the Waders, to which, as its internal structure shows, it 

 actually belongs. 



The most interesting of all the Ibises is undoubtedly the Sacred Ibis of the 

 Egyptians. As the ancient paintings show, the bird was a great feature in 

 Egyptian life, and the mummies of these birds which are found iu the 

 temples show that it was regarded with great veneration by the ancient 

 Egyptians. The species still inhabits the Upper Nile regions, and many 

 writers state that it is never found in Egypt at the present day. This, 

 however, is not the case, as the British Museum has several specimens 



