WATER BIRDS. 125 
Distribution.—Warmer parts of Eastern Hemisphere, West Indies, 
and southern portions of eastern United States, wandering northward to 
New England and Illinois. In America only locally abundant and of 
irregular distribution. 
In Michigan this species can be considered only as a very rare straggler. 
One was killed October 6, 1884 on a marsh near the shore of Saginaw Bay, 
just west of Bay City. . 
Mr. Newell A. Eddy, 
who got the specimen 
for his own collection 
says it is “‘a young bird, 
without doubt, of the 
year, wanting on the 
head entirely and toa 
considerable degree on 
the back the beautiful 
gloss and purple reflec- 
tions of the adult bird” 
(O. & O. X, p. 9). This 
specimen, according to 
Moseley, was at one time 
in the Kent Scientific 
Institute at Grand Rap- 
ids, but I have failed to 
identify it. In Novem- 
ber, 1905, I examined 
this collection carefully 
and found two specimens 
of the Glossy Ibis; one a Fig. 31, Glossy Ibis. 
poorly mounted, 1mma- From Baird, [Brewer and !Ridgway’s Water Birds ‘of North 
ture specimen marked America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 
“Grand Rapids,” and catalogued as No. 20189, but without other data; the 
other the skin of a male in full plumage (Catalogue No. 22018) which prob- 
ably came from the Gunn collection, but was without any data whatever. 
Possibly the mounted specimen is the one taken near Bay City in 1884; 
certainly there is no record of an additional capture at or near Grand 
Rapids. According to Covert (MS. list 1894-95), the late D. D. Hughes 
recorded another specimen taken at Marshall, Michigan. These cases 
are the only ones known to me of the occurrence of this species in the state. 
There are two records for Wisconsin, one for Ohio (Lake county, 1850), 
and one or more for Illinois, but apparently none for Indiana. At Heron 
Lake, Minn., it is said to occur singly or in pairs nearly every fall, and at 
least once has been found nesting (Nidiologist, IJ, 116). Mellwraith also 
records the capture of two specimens near Hamilton, Ont., in 1857 (Birds 
of Ontario, 1894, 105). ; — 
It is a wanderer from the tropics, where it breeds in swamps, building a 
nest of the stems of marsh vegetation placed on reeds or low bushes, and 
laying usually three dark blue unspotted eggs, averaging 2.05 by 1.41 
inches. : a 
In regions where it is abundant it is one of the most striking features of 
bird life. It is found usually in flocks, sometimes of many hundreds, 
which wade about fearlessly in the shallow water or through the open 
marshes, their dark metallic plumage glistening in the sunlight, and their 
quick motions and wheeling flight making a bird picture of unusual beauty. 
