DAVISON^S BLACK IBIS. 
269 
and tertiaries lengthened and decomposed, grey ; plumes of the lower neck 
lengthened. 
In winter the scapulars and tertiaries are only slightly lengthened and 
are not decomposed and the neck-plumes are absent. 
Bill black ; iris brown ; the whole head and neck and the edges of the 
eyelids dark bluish black ; legs and toes glossy black ; claws dull black. 
Length 31 inches, tail 5*8, wing 15, tarsus 4, bill from gape 7. 
The White Ibis occurs plentifully over the plains of Southern Pegu ; it 
is stated by Mr. Blyth to be found in Arrakan and Tenasserim, and in the 
latter Division was observed by Mr. Davison, who states that it is not un- 
common in the plains of the central portion. 
It is met with over the greater part of India and Ceylon, the Indo- 
Burmese countries. Southern China, Siam, Cochin China, the Malay 
peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 
This Ibis frequents marshes, paddy-fields and the muddy banks of rivers, 
going about in large flocks, and searching for its food in the water. It 
probably breeds in Burmah. In India it constructs a nest of sticks in a 
tree in June, July or August, and lays two to four pale greenish- white eggs. 
/. (Bthiopica, the Sacred Ibis of Egypt, is closely allied, differing chiefly 
in having the tips of the primaries greenish black and the tertiaries blacker 
and more lengthened. 
Genus GRAPTOCEPHALUS, Elliot. 
633. GRAPTOCEPHALUS DAVISONI. 
DAVISON^S BLACK IBIS. 
Geronticus davisoni, Hume, S. F. iii. p. 300. Geronticus papillosus, apua 
Oates, S. F. iii. p. 347. Inocotis papillosus, aptid Oates, S. F. v. p. 169. 
Graptocephalus davisoni, Flliot, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 490 ; ITume 8f Dav. S. F. 
vi. p. 485 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114 ; Oates, S. F. ix. p. 300, x. p. 244. Ibis 
harmondi, Oust. Bull. Soc. PMlotn. 1877, p. 28. 
Description. — Male and female. The head and a portion of the neck 
naked, the front of the head covered with small warts ; the remainder of 
the neck, the whole lower plumage, the back, scapulars and tertiaries dark 
brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts darker with a greenish lustre, which 
is also more or less present on the scapulars and under tail-coverts ; quills 
and tail glossy bluish black ; the lesser wing-coverts next the body white, 
forming a conspicuous spot on the wing. 
