78 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



black-backed gulls,* a bird much like our lesser 

 black-backed guU in shape and coloration. These 

 birds, we were told, are most destructive to the 

 cormorants, as they devour the eggs and newly- 

 hatched young as soon as the old birds leave the 

 nests uncovered. 



Here also were a great number of sacred ibises, f 

 which had built their nests in colonies amongst 

 those of the cormorants. So close together were the 

 nests of these ibises that they appeared to be one 

 mass of rubbish with numerous depressions, in 

 each of which were eggs or young, but mostly 

 young. The ibises rose in a cloud and flew away 

 at our approach. A great number of young ones, 

 however, were unable to fly, and two were caught 

 alive and taken back to the ship, where they were 

 safely reared, and they are now in the London 

 Zoological Gardens. When newly-hatched these 

 ibises are covered with grey and black down. The 

 head and neck of the adult are covered with jet 

 black skin bare of feathers, but this baldness is 

 not attained until the bird is two years old. Prior 

 to that the head and neck are clothed with black 

 feathers ; those of the throat and foreneck are, 

 however, moulted after a few weeks, and are re- 

 placed by new white feathers, which are the last 

 to be shed before the bird arrives at its fully 

 adult plumage. 



We were somewhat surprised to see the sacred 



* Larus dominicanus. f Ibis aethiopica. 



