98 
ALTRICIAL GRALLATORES — HERODIONES. 
Young, first year : Head, neck, and lower parts as in the last, hut upper parts and under side of 
the wing uniform, continuous bronzy green, with little, if any, admixture of purple or violet shades. 
No chestnut on the lesser wing-coverts! Bill, pale greenish horn-blue, blackish terminally and 
dusky basally ; iris, “ hazel ; ” legs and feet, deep black (= F. thalassinus, Ridgway ). 1 
Downy young : Bill light yellowish, the base, end, and band around the middle deep black ; 
lores blackish : legs and feet black. Forehead black, bounded posteriorly by a crescentic patch of 
dull, silvery white, extending from eye to eye, across the posterior portion of the crown ; the line 
of demarcation between the white and black being somewhat mixed or suffused with light rufous. 
Rest of head, neck, and lower parts covered with soft downy feathers of a uniform brownish gray 
shade, without any whitish streaks on head or neck. Partially complete plumage of the upper 
surface entirely uniform, continuous bronze-green, or metallic bottle-green, without the slightest 
admixture anywhere of purple, blue, or violet. • 
Length, about 19.00-26.00 ; expanse, 30.00-40.00 ; wing, 9.30-10.80 ; tail, 3.50-5.00 ; culmen, 
3.75-6.00 ; depth of bill, .50-60; tarsus, 3.00-4.40 ; middle toe, 2.10-2.85 ; bare portion of tibia, 
1.50-2.75 2 
According to Dr. J. G. Merrill (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Yol. I. p. 163), “ The young, when first 
hatched, are clothed in blackish down ; the bill is whitish, with dusky base. When nearly fledged, 
the wings and back have a very marked metallic lustre ; the base of bill, with terminal one fourth 
inch and a two fifths inch median band, black ; the intervening portions pinkish white.” 
In this widely distributed species there is very little variation in colors among specimens of the 
same age, but the difference in proportions is often very great. A perfectly adidt specimen from 
the vicinity of Santiago, Chili, and one from San Francisco, Cal., are much alike in plumage, 
except that in the former the crown is darker (being, in fact, decidedly dusky), while the back 
is of a darker chestnut, with more decided violet-purple reflections. In dimensions, however, they 
exhibit almost the extremes of measurem'ents, as the following will' show : — 
Catal. no. 
Locality. 
Wing. 
Culmen. 
Tarsus. 
Middle Toe. 
79928 
San Francisco, Cal. 
10.S0 
6.00 
4.25 
2.75 
49042 
Santiago, Chili. 
9.50 
4.15 
3.25 
2.20 
Specimens from the same locality, however, sometimes differ quite as much as those mentioned 
above ; and we are unable to appreciate any geographical differences whatever, examples from Chili, 
Buenos Ayres, Mexico, and Columbia River being quite identical. A specimen from the Sandwich 
Islands we refer to this species somewhat doubtfully, it being in immature plumage. It agrees 
strictly with American examples of the same age in all respects wherein guarauna differs from 
falcinellus, even to the reddish color of the bill, lores, and feet. Still, it is possible that perfect 
adults may show differences from both forms. 
This species, known in its mature form as the Bronzed Ibis, and in its immature 
condition as the Green Ibis, is a common species in Utah, Nevada, and Southwestern 
Texas, and probably also in New Mexico and Arizona, in localities favorable for its 
residence and support. 
1 Notes from fresh specimens killed at Oreana, on the Humboldt River, Nevada, Sept. 3, 1867. 
2 Extremes of about forty specimens. 
