IBIDID2E — THE IBISES. 
85 
tree. In tlie spring months it collects in large flocks before returning to its breed- 
ing-place. When a breeding-place has been once chosen, this is resorted to for many 
years in succession, and the birds are with difficulty made to abandon it. This Ibis 
feeds largely on fishes, and also devours frogs, young alligators, wood-rats, various 
kinds of young birds, crabs, snakes, turtles, and the like. It is very tenacious of 
life, and if wounded resists vigorously, and is dangerous to approach. It is very 
tough and oily, and unfit for food. 
Mr. Moore states that the Wood Ibis, when feeding, rakes the oozy bottom, or 
the marine plants, in the manner of several Herons, to startle their prey, crayfish, 
minnows, sirens, etc. It keeps its long bill in the water, and open two or three 
inches at the tip, the latter in contact with the mud, at about the deptli of the 
object sought. In this position it walks slowly about, raking the bottom with first 
one foot, then the other, as each is moved forward to make a step, and just before 
its weight is thrown upon it. Many of the animals on which the bird feeds are 
startled from their coverts by this raking, and in their fright take shelter within the 
open bill of their enemy. 
This Ibis feeds both in fresh and in salt water. Mr. Moore counted, on the 28th 
of February, 114 of this species feeding in one flock in a very shallow and muddy 
pond, where they were apparently finding many sirens. 
Dr. Berlandier states that the Wood Ibis inhabits the coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico, and is found ten leagues from it about the lakes, and especially in low and 
marshy places. It occurs in flocks, and is found in summer — in the months of 
June, July, and August — in the vicinity of Matamoras. It is in appearance a very 
stupid bird, and is known as the Tagarates. 
The eggs of this species are of a uniform dull white color, and vary in shape 
from a rounded oval to a nearly exact oval shape ; one end is always a little more 
obtuse than the other. They average about 2.50 inches in length by 2 inches in 
breadth. One from Para, collected by John E. Warren, Esq., of Troy, measures 2.78 
inches in length by 1.85 in breadth, which does not correspond with Dr. Bryant’s 
measurements. 
Family IBIDIDiE. — Tiie Ibises. 
Ibidince, Reichenb. Handb. 1851, pp. xiii, xiv (part : includes Tantalus, N’umenius, and Pclidna !) 
Ibidinac, Bonap. Consp. II. 1857, 150. 
Ibididce, Ridgw., Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr. IV. no. 1, Feb. 5, 1878, 221. 
Char. Wading birds of medium to rather large size, the bill much elongated, 
attenuated, more or less, toward the end, and bent downward, more or less de- 
cidedly, in sickle-fashion, like that of the Curlews (JSFumenius). Nostrils sub-basal, 
latero-superior, with more or less of a membrane above and behind ; nasal fossae 
continued forward to the very extremity of the maxilla in the form of a deep, 
narrow, continuous groove. Hallux almost incumbent ; claws slender, projecting 
far beyond the ends of the toes. 
The true Ibises form an eminently natural group of wading birds, distinguished 
from their nearest allies by the above characters. The species are moderately nu- 
merous (about twenty-six being known), and are dispersed over the warmer regions 
of the earth — America possessing a larger number than any other country (nine 
