these birds which had built their nests on them, probably to the number of fifty. The trees inside the walls 

 were as thickly covered with nests as those outside ; and the birds, which appeared docile and tame, did not 

 mind the noise of the people passing beneath them. When I visited the village, the young birds were all 

 well fledged, and most of them able to fly. The villagers informed me that the old birds move off to the 

 river in the very early dawn, and, having caught a sufficient supply for their young, return about eight or 

 nine o'clock ; a second expedition is made during the afternoon. Some idea of the quantity of fish caught 

 by these birds may be gathered from what the people told me, that quantities of fine fish were dropped by 

 the old birds when feeding their young, and were eaten by them. A young bird of this species, which I 

 shot in Scinde, disgorged a large quantity of small eels. This Ibis breeds during the month of February. 

 The nest is composed of small sticks, and is placed at the top of the trees ; if there are many on the same 

 tree, they are placed pretty close together. They lay three or four eggs, of a dull opaque white, nearly 

 2-^ inches in length, by rather more than 1-^ inch in width. The young birds are able to fly by the month 

 of May. I kept a young bird, which had dropped from the nest and broken its wing, in my garden for three 

 or four months. It was most gentle and quiet, occasionally snapping its strong beak at any person it did 

 not like. In a short time it recognized the person who fed it ; and whenever he made his appearance, it 

 would walk towards him, uttering a piteous cry, flapping its long wings, and bowing its head towards him. 

 It was a most ludicrous sight, which many came to see. It was fed on fresh fish, and would not touch any 

 that were at all tainted. Another young bird which I also kept would devour the bodies of birds brought 

 in for stuffing, and did not appear at all particular as to the quality of its food. The stomach of an old 

 bird contained a grassy substance, the remains of fish, and what appeared to be the claw of a small crab." 



Colonel Sykes states that the stomachs of three specimens dissected by him were distended with fibrous 

 vegetable matters in a comminuted state. A fourth contained the same kind of vegetable matters and the 

 half of a carp, nine inches long. 



Latham informs us that this bird is very common on the River Ganges, and that in some parts of India it 

 is called the Smaller Adjutant ; and he adds that the pink feathers are not unfrequently used as ornaments 

 by the ladies, like those of the Ostrich. 



Feathers clothing the neck, breast, and back silky white; upper tail-coverts silky white, suffused with pale 

 rose-colour, deepening into a crescentic form near the tip of each feather ; lesser wing-coverts deep olive- 

 green, broadly tipped with dull white ; greater coverts dull white ; upper portion of the scapularies silky 

 white, suffused in the centre with delicate rose-pink ; primaries and secondaries deep green ; tertiaries 

 lengthened, and of a lovely rose-pink, which deepens into carmine near the end of each feather, the tip 

 being occupied by a broad, decided crescent of silky white ; tail very deep green ; across the abdomen a 

 broad band of olive-brown, barred with white, each feather being broadly tipped with that hue ; the under 

 wing-coverts are also olive, largely tipped with silky white; lower part of the abdomen, thighs, and under 

 tail-coverts white, slightly suffused with pink; irides yellowish brown ; bill, naked part of the face and 

 crown, and the chin-pouch yellowish orange; legs pale dirty pink. Colonel Sykes states that there is 

 "a large diaphanous spot on each side of the base of the upper mandible before the eyes;" this, however, 

 is not perceptible in the dried skin, and hence it has not been noticed. 



In the immature state the general colouring is very similar, but the white tips of the abdominal-band 

 feathers and those of the under surface of the wing are more conspicuous, and the neck is clothed with down. 

 The following is Lieut. Burgess's "Description of a young bird taken on the 20th of April: — Beak dark 

 leaden brown, becoming still darker at the base ; skin of the face and forehead of the same hue ; feathers 

 of the head brownish grey ; those on the neck of an ashy brown, mixed with down ; shoulders ashy, with 

 light-brown edges ; scapularies similar, but edged with a much lighter ashy hue, the centre of the feathers 

 being the darkest ; lesser wing-coverts brownish black, tinged with ashy, and with light ashy edges; greater 

 wing-coverts dark-greyish black, their outer webs tipped with whitish ash-colour, and inner webs tinged 

 with the same colour on their edges ; tertiaries similar, but tinged with rose-colour ; primaries and secondaries 

 black, with green reflexions ; back beautiful pale rose-colour ; upper tail-coverts dusky grey ; tail black, with 

 bright-o-reen reflexions; breast, belly, and sides covered with beautiful white down, interspersed on the breast 

 with some dark and grey feathers, and on the sides with white, tinged with delicate rose-colour ; the whole 

 of the back is also covered with beautiful down. This bird was evidently a nestling, the first feathers having 

 scarcely grown enough to cover the body." 

 The figure is about half the natural size. 



