268 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
tail-coverts nearly pure white ; wings and tail black ; the face is less naked 
than in the adult^ and the extent of the bare skin increases with age. 
Iris pale yellow; bill and facial skin orange-yellow plumbeous at the 
base of the bill ; legs^ toes and claws brown . In the young the iris is 
brown ; skin of the chin orange^ turning to pinkish on the edge of the 
throat ; facial skin and basal half of bill orange^ terminal half dull yellowish 
brown ; legs and feet brown. 
Length 40 inches^ tail 6 5, wing 20, tarsus 9, bill from gape 10. The 
female is slightly smaller. 
The Pelican Ibis is very abundant in the plains of Southern Pegu, where it 
is a constant resident, and Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo. 
Mr. Blyth gives it from Arrakan. In Tenasserim Mr. Davison observed 
it at Tavoy, Mr. Davis at Thatone, and Mr. Hough in the extreme south 
on the Pakchan river. It is met with over the whole of India and Ceylon^ 
the Indo-Burmese countries, Southern China and Cochin China. South 
of Tenasserim it is replaced by T. lacteus. 
This large Ibis is found in large flocks frequenting marshes and inun- 
dated paddy-fields. It feeds like a Stork, watching for and pouncing on 
frogs, small fish and young snakes. It probably breeds on the southern 
coast of Pegu, for the Burmese near Kyeikpadein know the bird well, and 
informed me that it nested on tall trees in the plains south of Syriam. 
In India it breeds in October, making a nest of sticks in trees and laying 
two to four white eggs. 
Subfamily IBIDIN^. 
Genus IBIS, Lacep. 
632. IBIS MELANOCEPHALA. 
THE WHITE IBIS. 
Tantalus melanocephalus, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 709. Threskiornis melano- 
cephalus, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 768 ; Hume^ Nests and Eggs, p. C32 ; Oates, S. F. 
iii. p. 347. Ibis melanocephalus, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 359 ; Bl, B. Burm. 
p. 158 ; Elliot, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 488 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 452 ; Hume 8f 
Dav. S. F. vi. p. 484 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1106 ; 
Oates, S. F. x. p. 244. 
Description. — Male and female in breeding-plumage. — Head and neck 
naked and black ; the whole plumage white ; the tips of the earlier pri- 
maries mottled with brown ; the shafts of the primaries black ; the scapulars 
