THE WHITE IBIS. 55 



sists of a few tall mangroves, thousands of wild plum trees, several species of 

 cactus, some of them nearly as thick as a man's body, and more than twenty 

 feet high, different sorts of smilax, grape-vines, cane, palmettoes, Spanish 

 bayonets, and the rankest nettles I ever saw, — all so tangled together, that I 

 leave you to guess how difficult it was for my companions and myself to 

 force a passage through them in search of birds' nests, which, however, we 

 effected, although the heat was excessive, and the stench produced by the 

 dead birds, putrid eggs, and the natural effluvia of the Ibises, was scarcely 

 suflerable. But then, the White Ibis was there, and in thousands; and, 

 although I already knew the bird, I wished to study its manners once more, 

 that I might be enabled to present you with an account of them, which I now 

 proceed to do, — endeavouring all the while to forget the pain of the nume- 

 rous scratches and lacerations of my legs caused by the cactuses of Sandy 

 Island. 



As we entered that well-known place, we saw nests on every bush, cactus, 

 or tree. Whether the number was one thousand or ten I cannot say, but 

 this I well know: — I counted forty-seven on a single plum-tree. These nests 

 of the White Ibis measure about fifteen inches in their greatest diameter, 

 and are formed of dry twigs intermixed with fibrous roots and green branches 

 of the trees growing on the island, which this bird easily breaks with its 

 bill; the interior, which is flat, being finished with leaves of the cane and 

 some other plants. The bird breeds only once in the year, and the full 

 number of its eggs is three. They measure two inches and a quarter in 

 length, with a diameter of one inch and five-eighths, are rough to the touch, 

 although not granulated, of a dull white colour, blotched with pale yellow, 

 and irregularly spotted with deep reddish-brown. They afford excellent 

 eating, although when boiled they do not look inviting, the white resembling 

 a livid-coloured jelly, and the yolk being of a reddish-orange, the former 

 wonderfully transparent, instead of being opaque like that of most other 

 birds. The eggs are deposited from the 10th of April to the 1st of May, 

 and incubation is general by the 10th of the latter month. The young birds, 

 which are at first covered with thick down of a dark grey colour, are fed by 

 regurgitation. They take about five weeks to be able to fly, although they 

 leave the nest at the end of three weeks, and stand on the branches, or on 

 the ground, waiting the arrival of their parents with food, which consists 

 principally of small fiddler crabs and cray-fish. On some occasions, I have 

 found them at this age miles away from the breeding-places, and in this state 

 they are easily caught. As soon as the young are able to provide for them- 

 selves, the old birds leave them, and the different individuals are then seen 

 searching for food apart. While nestling or in the act of incubating, these 

 Ibises are extremely gentle and unwary, unless they may have been much 



