40 



WOOD IBIS. 



from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs and other 

 reptiles.'"* 



The figure of this bird given in the plate was drawn from a 

 very fine specimen, sent from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, esq. of 

 Beaufort, South Carolina; its size and markings were as follow. 



Length three feet two inches ; bill nearly nine inches long, 

 straight for half its length, thence curving downwards to the ex- 

 tremity, and full two inches thick at the base, where it rises high 

 in the head, the whole of a brownish horn color; the under man- 

 dible fits into the upper in its whole length, and both are very 

 sharp edged ; face and naked head and part of the neck dull 

 greenish blue, wrinkled; eye large, seated high in the head; irides 

 dark red; under the lower jaw is a loose corrugated skin, or pouch, 

 capable of containing about half a pint; whole body, neck and 

 lower parts white; quills dark glossy green and purple; tail about 

 two inches shorter than the wings, even at the end, and of a deep 

 and rich violet; legs and naked thighs dusky green; feet and toes 

 yellowish, sprinkled with black; feet almost semipalmated and 

 bordered to the claws with a narrow membrane; some of the 

 greater wing coverts are black at the root, and shafted with black; 

 plumage on the upper ridge of the neck generally worn, as in the 

 present specimen, with rubbing on the back, while in its common 

 position of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the White 

 Ibis (see fig. 3). 



The female has only the head and chin naked; both are sub- 

 ject to considerable changes of color when young; the body being 

 found sometimes blackish above, the belly cinereous, and spots of 

 black on the wing coverts ; all of which, as the birds advance in 

 age, gradually disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, &c. 

 as has been described. 



^ Travels, &c. p. 150. 



