77/(7 Wood Ibis. 
female; aiul tlie chief feature of the display was this white spot 
on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so 
that the spot flashed like the ' chrysanthemum ' on a priory 
buck whose curiosity has been aroused. In the yloom of the 
forest the bird was hard to see, but the flashin;;- of this i)atch of 
white feathers revealed it at once, attracting- immediate atten- 
tion. It was an excellent example of a colouration mark which 
served a purely advertising [)urpose; apparently it was part of 
the courtshii) display. The bird was about 30ft. up in the 
branches .... This camp was very lovely. It was on 
the edge of a bay, into which the river broadened immediately 
below the rapids. There was a beach of white sand, where we 
bathed and washed our clothes. All around us. and across thi? 
bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the 
river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parra- 
keets. coloured green, blue, and red. Big toucans called 
overhead, lustrous green-black in colour, with white throats, 
red gorgets, red and yellow tail-coverts, and huge black and 
yellow bills " 
[The last chapter. To the Amazon and Home, contains 
no reference to birds of interest to our readers. Aliller (the 
naturalist referred to frequently in the above extracts) has also 
written a book " In S. American Wilds," and he gives many 
details of the life histories of the avi-fauna met with — we may 
quote some of them later. — Ed. B.N.] 
^^-K> 
The Wood Ibis. 
(Tantalus loculator). 
By W. Shore B.aily. 
The Wood Ibis, or Stork, as it is called in America, is by 
far the largest of the Ibises, being about the same size as the 
European Stork, a bird which in colour it very much resembles. 
Description : Adults white; wing quills, primary-coverts 
and tail glossy greenish black; the bald head and neck dusky; 
bill dirty yellowish-brown; legs bluish grey. 
Tantalus loculator is found in both the Americas, In 
