BTTWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
53 
ORDER HERODIONES. HERONS, IBISES, ETC. 
SiJBOKDER ClCOiSri^. Storks, Etc. 
Family CICONIID.^. Wood Ibises, E^ic. 
Subfamily TANTALINiE. Wood Ibises. 
Geisus tantalus Linnaeus. 
Tantalus loculator Linn. 
Wood Ibis. 
Description. 
Size large, with long legs, neck and beak, the latter measuring in specimen before 
me 8| inches ; bill high and wide at base, tapering to the end which curves down- 
ward ; tibiae bare for more than half their length. Sexes alike in plumage. 
Male. — Bill (dried skin) both mandibles about base blackish ; most of lower man- 
dible, sides of maxilla in front of nostrils and culmen, of brownish-yellow ; lightest 
on upper surface ; bare skin of head and upper part of neck dull bluish-black, 
thickly covered, especially on nape and back of neck, with grayish-brown scales ; 
tail and long wing feathers black, with green, purplish and bronze reflections. 
Rest of plumage pure white; legs (dried skin) brownish-black ; toes yellowish; 
iris dark-brown. Length about 4 feet ; extent about 5| feet. Weight 9 to 12 pounds. 
Habitat. — Southern United States, from the Ohio Valley, Colorado, Utah, Califor- 
nia, etc., south to Buenos Ayres ; casually northward to Pennsylvania and New York. 
The Wood Ibis, a common resident in the southern states, occurs in 
Pennsylvania as a very rare and irreg-ular visitor. The late Judge Lib- 
bart, in his ornithological report of Lancaster county, says : “ I ob- 
tained a fine specimen of this species, shot from a troop of ten by Mr. 
M. Ely on the Susquehanna, July, 1862.” 
Mr. C. J. Pennock, in his catalogue of Chester county birds, writes 
that a Wood Ibis was taken a number of years ago by the late Yincent 
Barnard. Prof. August Kock, of Williamsport, has one in his collection 
which was captured a few years ago in Lycoming county, and Dr. 
Walter Yan Fleet, of Benovo, includes it among the stragglers in his 
list of species found in Clinton county. Dr. A. C. Treichler, Elizabeth- 
town, has specimens of this bird in his collection which were shot in 
Lancaster county in the early part of July, 1883, shortly after severe 
storms. Mr. Geo. P. Friant, of Scranton, informs me that a small flock 
of Wood Ibises, about four or five years ago, were seen in his neighbor- 
hood. 
In Florida, where these birds were very common in 1885, 1 found they 
fed chiefly on fish, frogs and snakes. 
Note. — Dr. Turnbull {Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania) writing of the 
Glossy Ibis ( Plegadis autumnalis) — family Ihididcv, says : ‘‘ Last season 
(1866) Mr. John Krider shot a specimen just below Philadelphia. At 
long intervals it has been seen on the river Delaware.” I have in my 
