126 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Feathers about base of bill blackish (lores naked); rest of head and neck, lesser 
wing-coverts and entire under parts, rich dark chestnut; upper parts, except lesser wing- 
coverts, dark purplish-green with strong metallic reflections. Bill, feet and legs dark 
greenish-brown, or black; iris brown. Bare skin between bill and eye dark blue. Sexes 
alike. 
Length 22 to 25 inches; wing 10.20 to 11.85; culmen 4.30 to 5.35; tarsus 2.90 to 4.30. 
Family 19. CICONIIDA. Storks and Wood Ibises. 
67. Wood Ibis. Mycteria americana Linn. (188) 
Synonyms: Wood Stork, Wood Pelican (Catesby).—Tantalus loculator, Linn., 1758, 
and authors generally. 
Its stork-like appearance, bare head and neck, and strongly contrasted 
black and white plumage are distinctive. 
Distribution.—Southern United States, from the Ohio Valley, Colorado, 
Utah, southeastern California, etc., south to Argentine Republic; casually 
northward to Pennsylvania and New York. 
This bird must be regarded as a mere strageler to Michigan from the 
south. Our only positive record is furnished by Mr. P. A. Taverner, of 
Detroit, who found a freshly mounted specimen in a taxidermist’s shop in 
July, 1910, and on investigation discovered that it was killed at Monroe, 
Michigan, June 19, 1910. It was an immature bird, and the sex was not 
determined. 
The only other Michigan report comes from Mr. John Hazelwood, of 
Port Huron, who writes: ‘I saw and shot at aspecimen of the Wood Ibis 
at this place recently. I have shot this species in Texas and Florida, and 
a man that has once killed a Wood Ibis could always tell one again, especially 
if he was within 225 feet from it, which I was when I fired two shots at it. 
But the bird got away, hit quite hard with No. 1 shot. A large white bird 
with black wing-tips and black tail, is easy to tell. This bird was following 
in the flight line of migratory birds, and from this place it flew across the 
river into Canada, going southeast as far as the eye could see.” Mr. 
Hazelwood does not know the exact date of this occurrence, but it was 
during the fall migration, probably in August. 
The Wood Ibis has been taken several times in Wisconsin, also singly 
in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. According to E. W. Nelson it was 
“very abundant in the vicinity of Mound City, Ill., on the Ohio River, 
and at Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi, the last of August, 1875. One 
was taken near Cleveland, Ohio, in 1879” (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, 43). 
Mr. John Hurter states that it was “abundant through August at a small 
lake in Marion Co., Ill., in 1879, but all disappeared about Sept. 5. Counted 
fifty at one time” (Ibid., VI, 124). 
The Wood Ibis breeds regularly in the Gulf States, and, like some other 
water birds, wanders north after the breeding season. The nest is of sticks, 
placed high up in trees, and the eggs are two to three, white and chalky, 
with pale spots or stains of brownish; they average 2.74 by 1.80 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: ‘Head and neck bare; primaries, secondaries, and tail glossy greenish-black, 
rest of plumage white. Immature: Head more or less feathered; head and neck grayish- 
