air SCUSTL z re Sa Na spay maa mcrae Oe Asa reer 
562 WOOD {BI® 
inland swamps, where it feeds on fish and reptiles. “The French sn- 
habitants of Louisiana esteem it good eating. 
With the particular manners of this species I am not personally ac- 
quainted; but the following characteristic traits are given of it by Mr. 
William Bartram, who had the best opportunities of noting them ; — 
“ This solitary bird,” he observes, “does not associate in flocks, but 
is generally seen alone, commonly near the banks of great rivers, in 
vast marshes or meadows, especially such as are covered by inunda- 
tions, and also in the vast, deserted rice plantations stands alone 
on the topmost limb of tall, dead cypress-trees,'” +x contracted or 
drawn in upon his shoulders, and his beak r~- __,, like a long scythe, 
upon his breast; in this pensive posture, a. solitary situation, they 
look extremely grave, sorrowful, and melancholy, as if in the deepest 
thought. They are never seen on the sea-coast, and yet are never 
found at a great distance from it. They feed on serpents, young alli- 
gators, frogs, and other reptiles.” * 
The figure of this bird (No. 264) was drawn from a very fine speci- 
men, sent to me from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, Esq., of Beaufort, 
South Carolina ; its size and markings were as follow : — 
Length, three feet two inches ; bill, nearly nine inches long, straight 
for half its length, thence curving downwards to the extremity, 
and full two inches thick at the base, where it rises high in the head, 
the whole of a brownish horn color; the under mandible fits into the 
upper in its whole length, and both are very sharp edged; face, and 
naked head, and part of the neck, dull greenish blue, wrinkled; eye, 
large, seated high in the head; irides, dark red; under the lower jaw 
is a loose, corrugated skin, or pouch, capable of containing about half 
a pint; whole body, neck, and lower parts, white; quills, dark glossy: 
green and purple; tail, about two inches shorter than the wings, even 
at the end, and of a deep and rich violet ; legs and naked thighs, dusky 
green; feet and toes, yellowish, sprinkled with black; feet, almost 
semipalmated, and bordered to the claws with a narrow membrane; 
some of the greater wing-coverts are black at the root, and shafted 
with black ;-plumage on the upper ridge of the neck, generally worn, 
as in the presented specimen, with rubbing on the back, while in its 
common position, of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the 
White Ibis. 
The female has only the head and chin naked; both are subject to 
considerable changes of color when young, the body being found 
sometimes blackish above, the belly cinereous, and spots of blagk on 
the wing-coverts; all of which, as the birds advance in age, gradually 
disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, &c., as has been 
described. 
* Pravels, &e., p. 10s 
