434. GLOSSY IBIS. 
wider in proportion as the bird is younger: the breast, belly,. 
vent, under tail-coverts, and thigh-feathers are greyish brown 
or slate colour: the lower portion of the back, wings, and: tail 
of a somewhat golden green, passing into reddish, with but 
very little gloss in specimens under one year old, and richer 
as they advance in age. The feet are wholly blackish. 
No bird ranges more widely over the globe than the glossy 
ibis ; if has long been known to inhabit Europe, Asia, Oceania, 
and Africa, where it gained its celebrity. It is now proclaimed. 
as American, though we are not able to tell how numerous or 
extended the species may be on this continent. We can 
hardly doubt, however, that it is found along almost all the 
shores of North and South America, though far from common 
in any of these States. From the fact of this bird having 
been known to stray occasionally from Europe to far distant 
Iceland, we may infer that the individuals met with in the 
United States are merely stragglers from that part of the 
world, just as the Scolopax grisea of the same plate is an 
American bird well known to push its accidental migrations 
as far as the old continent. 
Lest the discovery of the glossy ibis on the continent of 
America should give weight to an erroneous supposition of 
Vieillot, we think proper to mention that the Cayenne ibis of 
Latham, Zantalus Cayanensis, Gmel., represented by Buffon, 
pl. enl. 820 (Vieillot’s own wnseen [bis sylvatica), is by no 
means this bird, but a real species examined by us, and which 
must be called Lbis Cayanensis. 
Let it come whence it may, the glossy ibis is only an occa- 
sional visitant of the United States, appearing in small flocks 
during the spring season at very irregular periods, on the 
coasts of the middle states. ‘The specimen Mr Ord described, 
and which produced a strong sensation even among experi- 
enced gunners and the oldest inhabitants as a novelty, was 
shot on the 7th of May 1817, at Great Ege Harbour, and 
we have seen others from the same locality and obtained 
at the same season, as also from Maryland and Virginia, A 
