Birds of Celebes: Ibidae. 
805 
ments. 
Wing 
Tail 
Tarsus 
Mid. toe 
with claw 
Oulmen 
(straight) 
a. (C 5272) ad., Limbotto, Jan. 76 (Mussch.) 
248 
90 
81 
73 
103 
b. (C 10986)ad.,Tondano, Aug.— Sept. (N.O.) 
254 
90 
81 
72 
102 
e. fNr. 2191) ad., Ternate 
286 
— 
102 
79 
127 
d. (Nr. 11726) ad., Australia. . -. . . . 
292 
— 
— 
— 
— 
Seven examples from Europe and N. Arica 
255-300 
— 
84—108 
— 
— 
Eggs. Elongated ovals as a rule, regularly pointed towards the small end, beautiful uniform 
blue, scarcely any tmge of green in any; shell very fine and compact (the pores 
being very inconspicuous), with a slight gloss (Hume 10. See, also, W. E. Clarke 8; 
Bennett b7\ North f/ JO; etc.). 
Nest. “The nests were small and mostly made of twigs and grass-roots, almost flat in shape 
and placed upon the horizontal forks of small branches high up in the trees” — thorny 
trees growing in the half-dried bed of a small tank (Ceylon — Eegge 5, 10). 
Distribution. America — Eastern portion of the United States; Central and Southern Europe; 
Africa; Madagascar; Asia — Asia minor, Persia to the Indian countries, the East 
India Archipelago to New Guinea, and Australia. 
In Celebes; N. Peninsula — IMinahassa (Nat. Coll.), Gorontalo Dist. (Eorsten dl, 
V. Bosenherg a 2, e 1, d 7, Biedel f 1, v. Musschenbr.), S. Peninsula — Macassar 
(S. Muller dl], Tete Adji (Weber 11). 
The Glossy Ibis is a dweller in most of the temperate and warm countries 
of the globe. In South and Central America and the western parts of North 
America the typical form is represented by two closely allied species, Plegadis 
guarama (L.) and P. ridgwayi (Allen), the first differing by its white face and 
ranging from the Western United States to the Argentine Republic, the latter, 
said to have shorter stouter legs and feet and some differences of intensity in 
colour, inhabiting Peru and Chili (see Ridgway’s Manual N. Am. Birds 1887, 
124). It is probable that Plegadis falcinellus also is not perfectly uniform in its 
characters throughout its vast range. Bonaparte separated the birds of Java 
and Celebes as F.peregrinus under the belief that they differed in colour. No 
proof of this has been found since, but Briiggemann and, later, W. Blasius 
have held them separate as a subspecies in virtue of their small size. The two 
Dresden specimens from Celebes are also small, but one from Ternate, which 
island lies nearly in sight of- Celebes, is very large. Before they can be ad- 
mitted as racially distinct in Celebes and Java, more specimens should be measured. 
It is also an open question at present whether the species is not simply a winter- 
visitor to these islands. 
In the Minahassa the Glossy Ibis appears to be of rather rare occurrence, 
but this is clearly not the case at Lake Limbotto, from where there are four 
or five examples obtained by Torsten in September and October, 1841, and 
where Rosenberg and his hunters shot 16 specimens in two months in 1863 
and 1864; he speaks of it as very abundant. In Europe it is only a summer- 
visitor — a straggler to the British Islands, Norway, Denmark, North Germany, 
Holland, Belgium and Northern France, but breeding plentifully in Hungary, and 
