NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



109 



dubon only saw a flock of three In Louisiana. The bird is said not to be an uncom- 

 mon visitant to Jamaica and Cuba, and very common on the Island of Trinidad, 

 where it formerly nested. Mr. Warren observed the Scarlet Ibis breeding in im- 

 mense colonies on tue banks of the Amazon, in dense, impenetrable thickets of 

 bamboo canes, several kinds of thorny cactus and Spanish bayonets, besides numbers 

 of small mangroves and palmettos, all interlaced and tangled with huge vines. In 

 one place every bush and tree had on it from five- to twenty nests; they were about 

 a foot and a half in diameter and perfectly flat; the materials used in their con- 

 struction were twigs, fibrous roots and leaves. Mr. Warren states that the Ibises, 

 being disturbed, rose in. immense numbers, and a more striking spectacle than a 



185. Scarlet Ibis. 



large flock of these splendid birds floating through the air, like a crimson bloud, 

 cannot possibly be conceived. The rookeries are only tenanted during the dry season. 

 The eggs are two or three in number, gr£|,yish-white in color, marked with spots and 

 blotches of brown of varying shades, and 

 distributed variously over the surface, but 

 generally more profusely at the larger 

 end. The average size is 2.15x1.46. 



186. GLOSSY IBIS. Plegadis auium- 

 nalis (Hasselq.) Geog. Dist. — 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 Neyada. 

 In Europe the course of its migrations for 

 the summer is said to be chiefly in a line 

 from Egypt, to Turkey, Hungary and Po- 

 lanri, and to the southern parts of Russia. 

 In its passage from Africa it is occasion- 

 ally seen in the Grecian Archipelago, in 

 Sicily, Sardinia, Genoa, Switzerland, 

 France, Holland and Great Britain. The 

 nesting of the Glossy Ibis is like that of 

 the next species. I'he eggs are of a deep 

 greenish-blue and average 2.01x1.47. 186. Glossv Ibis. 



