Family IBIDIDiE. 



THE GLOSSY IBIS. 

 Plegadis falcinellus^ Linnaeus. 

 Plate 41. 



The Glossy Ibis ought by rights to have appeared on Plate 42 along with the 

 Storks and Spoonbill, but to prevent it being represented on too small a scale I 

 have placed it with the Bitterns. 



Nearly every year this species arrives as a Bird of Passage on our coasts, 

 generally coming in the autumn months, more often seen on the southern and 

 eastern shores of England, ranging as far north as Yorkshire. About twenty have 

 been noted at different times in Scotland, in addition to a flock of a similar number 

 which was observed in the Orkneys in the autumn of 1907. About forty occur- 

 rences have been recorded in Ireland. The Glossy Ibis is widely distributed over 

 the Old World, and is also found in the south-eastern United States, whilst a 

 closely allied form inhabits the southern parts of the same region, and also South 

 America. 



During the breeding season the birds associate in large colonies ; their nests, 

 composed of the stems of reeds and twigs, are placed low down on the branches 

 of bushes among the marshes, or in thick reed-beds. 



The eggs are a deep greenish-blue in colour, and are usually four in number. 



The food consists of worms, crustaceans, water-insects, frogs, &c. Lord Lilford 

 describes the only note he ever heard from these birds as "a decidedly corvine, 

 prolonged, guttural croak." 



Formerly the Glossy Ibis seems to have visited our shores more frequently 

 than at the present time, as Lubbock, writing in 1845 of its occurrence in 

 Norfolk, as quoted by Stevenson {Birds of Norfolk), stated that " fifty years 

 back it was seen often enough to be known to gunners and fishermen as the 

 black curlew." 



Some twenty years ago the late Lord Lilford had a small flock of this species 



in his aviaries, and in his Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands 



refers to the curious attitude they assumed in warm weather. I had opportunities 



of watching these birds as they stood in an upright position, with one side facing 



10 



