GLOSSY IBIS. 17 



The principal home of this bird is the northern coast of South 

 America from Zulia, Venezuela (Ernst), and Trinidad Island 

 (Leotaud) to the mouth of the Amazon (Allen). It penetrates the 

 interior of Colombia to the Meta River (Burger), follows the 

 Amazon up to the Rio Negro (Ihering), and goes south on the coast 

 of Brazil to Iguape, Sao Paulo (Ihering). When Waterton visited 

 South America in 1812, he found scarlet ibises in innumerable flocks 

 along the coast of British Guiana near Georgetown and four years 

 later found them equally abundant on the coast of French Guiana, 

 both east and west of Cayenne. The brilliant coloring of the bird 

 early drew to it the attention of the plumage hunter, and about 1895 

 its skins formed a not inconsiderable j>art of the $200,000 worth of 

 plumage exported yearly from Para, Brazil (Goeldi). Though 

 sadly depleted in numbers, yet it is still far from extinction, for as 

 late as March, 1909, several hundred were in sight at once on the 

 Waini River, British Guiana (Beebe). 



The scarlet ibis is only a very rare straggler in the United States 

 and the West Indies. The records north of South America are: 

 Costa Rica (Zeledon) ; Jamaica previous to 1847 (Denny) ; Fort 

 Ogden, Fla.j May, 1888 (Scott) ; Bayou Sara, La., July 3, 1821 

 (Audubon) ; Los Pinos, N. Mex. (Coues) ; Fort Lowell, Ariz., Sep- 

 tember 17, 1890 (Brown) ; Grape Creek, Wet Mountain Valley, Colo. 

 (Lowe). Linnaeus based his name of this species on Catesby's plate 

 and description of birds that were said to have come from the 

 Bahamas, but since the scarlet ibis has no other record for the 

 Bahamas, it is probable that Catesby was misled as to the origin of 

 his birds and that they really came from South America. 



Eggs were taken May 2, 1901, in Dutch Guiana (specimens in 

 Thayer collection). 



Glossy Ibis. Plegadis autumnalis (Linnaeus). 



The glossy ibis has a wide range in the tropical and subtropical 

 regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, extending north to Spain, Hun- 

 gary, Greece, Persia, Turkestan, and China, and south to southern 

 Africa, Borneo, and Australia. A very small percentage of the 

 species occurs in the Western Hemisphere, where it is found prin- 

 cipally in Jamaica, Cuba, Florida, and Louisiana; casual north to 

 Nova Scotia, Ontario, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Colorado. 



The status of this species in Florida is not well defined. Both 

 this and the white-faced glossy ibis occur in Florida, breeding in 

 close proximity, and they agree so closely in appearance that they 

 can not be distinguished by sight at ordinary distances. Hence it is 

 possible that some of the following records of the glossy ibis refer 

 really to the white-faced species. The former is recorded from 

 80652°— 13 2 



