56 THE WHITE IBIS. 



disturbed, for they almost allow you to touch them on the nest. The females 

 are silent all the while, but the males evince their displeasure by uttering 

 sounds which greatly resemble those of the White-headed Pigeon, and which 

 may be imitated by the syllables crook, croo, croo. The report of a gun 

 scarcely alarms them at first, although at all other periods these birds are 

 shy and vigilant in the highest degree. 



The change in the colouring of the bill, legs, and feet of this bird, that 

 takes place in the breeding-season, is worthy of remark, the bill being then 

 of a deep orange-red, and the legs and feet of a red nearly amounting to 

 carmine. The males at this season have the gular pouch of a rich orange- 

 colour, and somewhat resembling in shape that of the Frigate Pelican, 

 although proportionally less. During winter, these parts are of a dull flesh- 

 colour. The irides also lose much of their clear blue, and resume in some 

 degree the umber colour of the young birds. I am thus particular in these 

 matters, because it is doubtful if any one else has ever paid attention to 

 them. 



' While breeding, the White Ibises go to a great distance in search of food 

 for their young, flying in flocks of several hundreds. Their excursions take 

 place at particular periods, determined by the decline of the tides, when all 

 the birds that are not sitting go off, perhaps twenty or thirty miles, to the 

 great mud flats, where they collect abundance of food, with which they 

 return the moment the tide begins to flow. As the birds of this genus feed 

 by night as well as by day, the White Ibis attends the tides at whatever hour 

 they may be. Some of those which bred on Sandy Key would go to the 

 keys next the Atlantic, more than forty miles distant, while others made for 

 the everglades; but they never went off singly. They rose with common 

 accord from the breeding-ground, forming themselves into long lines, often 

 a mile in extent, and soon disappearing from view. Soon after the turn of 

 the tide we saw them approaching in the same order. Not a note could 

 you have heard on those occasions; yet if you disturb them when far from 

 their nests, they utter loud hoarse cries resembling the syllables hunk, hunk, 

 hunk, either while on the ground or as they fly off. 



The flight of the White Ibis is rapid and protracted. Like all other 

 species of the genus, these birds pass through the air with alternate flappings 

 and sailings; and I have thought that the use of either mode depended upon 

 the leader of the flock, for, with the most perfect regularity, each individual 

 follows the motion of that preceding it, so that a constant appearance of 

 regular undulations is produced through the whole line. If one is shot at 

 this time, the whole line is immediately broken up, and for a few minutes 

 all is disorder; but as they continue their course, they soon resume their 

 former arrangement. The wounded bird never attempts to bite or to defend 



