58 THE WHITE IBIS. 



not a live snail was to be seen, although hundreds lay dead beneath. Was 

 this caused by the corrosive quality of the bird's ordure? 



There is a curious though not altogether general difference between the 

 sexes of this species as to the plumage: — the male has five of its primaries 

 tipped with glossy black for several inches, while the female, which is very 

 little smaller than the male, has only four marked in this manner. On 

 examining more than a hundred individuals of each sex, I found only four 

 exceptions, which occurred in females that were very old birds, and which, 

 as happens in some other species, might perhaps have been undergoing the 

 curious change exhibited by Ducks, Pheasants, and some other birds, the 

 females of which, when old, sometimes assume the livery of the males. 



Much, as you are aware, good reader, has been said respecting the "oil 

 bags" of birds. I dislike controversy, simply because I never saw the least 

 indications of it in the ways of the Almighty Creator. Should I err, forgive 

 me, but my opinion is, that these organs were not made without an object. 

 Why should they consist of matter so conveniently placed, and so disposed 

 as to issue under the least pressure, through apertures in the form of well 

 defined tubes? The White Ibis, as well as the Wood Ibis, and all the other 

 species of this genus, when in full health, has these oil bags of great size, 

 and, if my eyes have not deceived me, makes great use of their contents. 

 Should you feel anxious to satisfy yourself on this subject, I request of you 

 to keep some Ibises alive for several weeks, as I have done, and you will 

 have an opportunity of judging. And again, tell me if the fat contained in 

 these bags is not the very best lip-salve that can be procured. 



When any species of Ibis with which I am acquainted falls into the water 

 on being wounded, it swims tolerably well; but I have never observed any 

 taking to the water and swimming either by choice or to escape pursuit. 

 I chanced one morning to be on the look-out for White Ibises, in a swamp 

 not many miles from Bayou Sara. It was in the end of summer, and all 

 around was pure and calm as the clear sky, the bright azure of which Avas 

 reflected by the lake before us. The trees had already exchanged the verdure 

 of their foliage for more mellow tints of diversified hue; the mast dropped 

 from the boughs; some of the Warblers had begun to think of removing 

 farther south; the Night Hawk, in company with the Chimney Swallow, 

 was passing swiftly towards the land of their winter residence, and the 

 Ibises had all departed for the Florida coasts, excepting a few of the white 

 species, one of which we at length espied. It was perched about fifty yards 

 from us towards the centre of the pool, and as the report of one of our guns 

 echoed among the tall cypresses, down to the water, broken winged, it fell. 

 The exertions which it made to reach the shore seemed to awaken the half- 

 torpid alligators that lay in the deep mud at the bottom of the pool. One 



