218 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
We were very much mystified by the small size of some 
we shot. It may probably have been that they were hens, 
but the circumstance is also noticed by Von Heuglin (Ibis, 
1859, p. 346). What made it remarkable was that they 
were, with one exception, old crested birds with short dark 
beaks, while the large-beaked specimens were immature. 
The bill in the shortest I measured was 7,4,* in the longest 
9§, a marvellous difference. The tarsus in the shortest 5}; 
in the longest 7}. Captain Shelley gives the entire length 
at 36 inches, but I have no doubt his system of measure- 
ment is different from mine, as our biggest was only 29. 
I measure from the forehead to the tip of the tail; and per- 
haps I ought to add, that wherever I give the length of a 
bird it has been taken before it was skinned. Heuglin 
(op. cit.) says the eye is yellow in the young, but in one 
which I examined it was grey. Several specimens had the 
thighs stained with buff, yet I never saw any wade above 
the tarsus, 
I should think that the White Herons set down as Ardea 
garzetia with a query by Dr. Adams were probably Spoon- 
bills. : 
A young Spoonbill in the Zoological Gardens used to 
sit on its tarsal joints, with its feet raised an inch or two 
into the air, so that no part of it but its knees (or ankles as 
they are more correctly called) touched the ground. The 
keeper told me that the Storks did the same. 
181. GtLossy Iss, Jé¢s falcinellus, Linn. 
(29, Tringa autumnalis longirostris, Hasselquist) ; 
“ Herres.” 
On the 13th of "April I saw a Glossy Ibis in the water- 
course, which one has to cross in going to the Memnonium 
° Ina young bird of the year shot at Yarmouth (Zool., 2871) it is 
only 6.6. 
