WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS 



271 



In California this is a common summer 



visitant and breeder in the San Joaquin Val- 

 ley. One or two colonies have been found in 



southern California. Elsewhere in the state 



the records pertain as far as known to birds 



in migration or on foraging expeditions. Thus 



the northernmost records of occurrence in 



California are probably of birds in transit to 



or from the known breeding colonies in eastern 



Oregon. 



Beck (MS) noted the first of these Ibises 



at Los Baiios, Merced County, in 1912, on 



April 22, when he saw two bands of about 



twenty each flying north. Lamb (1912, p. 34) 



noted the species as late as September 10 and 



24 at an oasis on the Mohave desert. A re- 

 markable flight of White-faced Glossy Ibises 



was noted by Belding (1905, p. 112) at 



"Stockton on May 5, 6, 7, 1879, during a gale 



from the northwest which lasted for three 



days. During this time from 4,000 to 5,000 



of these birds flew north. They followed the 



eastern edge of the tule marsh as nearly as the 



strong wind would allow them to, going by 



sinuous flight up and down, to the right and 

 left, with few wing strokes." 



J. S. Hunter (MS) saw about 200 Ibises in 

 one flock near Los Baiios on October 30, 1914. 



This is an exceptionally late date in this lati- 

 tude for more than occasional stragglers. 

 There are in the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology three specimens taken in the same 

 locality on November 25 and December 4 and 

 23, 1911. One of these was plainly a cripple, 

 and all were immature. But Belding (MS) 

 saw a flock of more than a hundred feeding 

 in a pasture near Stockton on February 9, 

 1886^ and several dozen were seen by him in 



the markets of Stockton during the winter of and naked area between 

 1885. Small flocks were observed in the ^^^7g,.rfJaZr^ 

 winter of 1885 (January 1, etc.) near San 



Diego (Holterhoff, 1885, p. 312), and there are other reports of occa- 

 sional winter occurrences in the southern coastal district; but the 

 species cannot be considered as regularly present in winter north of 

 the Mexican line. 





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Fig. 44. Side of bill 

 of White-faced Glossy 

 Ibis. Natural size. 



Note down-curved tip 



