190 ARDEfD.E. 



The long legs of this bird enable it to wade, but they seem 

 not to be adapted for running either fast or for any length of 

 time. On the wing it is not only strong, but swift and grace- 

 ful, its wings being expanded at full length, and moved with 

 ease and in regular succession. Sometimes the bird will sail 

 along for some distance, or soar in half-circles : it flies generally 

 very high, and when it alights, it flaps its wings quickly as it 

 comes near the ground. 



The peculiar manner of this species when on the wing 

 having been mentioned before, it remains only to be observed, 

 that when a flock intends to alight, the line becomes broken : 

 on reaching the chosen spot, the birds fly in all directions in 

 great confusion, sailing about and alighting one after ano- 

 ther in quick succession. It is equally beautiful to see the 

 flock take wing in the same wild confusion ; but in a very 

 short space of time the line is formed, and raised high in the 

 air, during which the length increases by one bird after 

 another taking its place right and left, and thus extending or 

 increasing the line until they move off in this peculiar frontal 

 line. The only note produced by the Ibis is the syllable 

 wrah ! which it utters when surprised or frightened. 



The adult male Ibis measures from twenty-seven to twenty- 

 eight inches in length from the tip of the beak to the extre- 

 mity of the tail; the wing, from carpus to tip, thirteen 

 inches; the naked part of the tibia, two inches and a half; 

 tarsus, four inches and a quarter; middle toe, including 

 the claw, three inches and a quarter ; hinder toe, one inch 

 and a half. 



The colour of the head, neck, upper part of the back, and 

 all the under parts, is a dark red brown of great depth of 

 colour ; lower part of the back, rump, wing-coverts, primaries, 

 and tail, dark brownish green, with reflections of bronze 



