ANASTOMUS OSCITAN8. 
1105 
in Jordon’s f Birds of India 5 : — “ Many years ago several Shell-eaters were brought to me alive for the purpose 
of training Bhyri, and these, as is usual, to prevent them struggling or fluttering, had their eyes sewn up. 
To feed them the falconer had a quantity of the large Ampullaria brought, which were placed before the 
captive and blind Shell-eaters. The bird secured a shell by its feet and after sundry alterations of its 
position succeeded in cutting off the operculum as clearly as if it had been done by a razor, but so rapidly 
that I was unable to see the exact way in which it was accomplished. It then inserted the tip of its clumsy 
beak into the open mouth of the shell, and after working it about for a short time pulled out the entire 
shellfish almost to its utmost tip. I saw this process repeated many times, and I cannot conceive that a 
bird which takes the trouble to extract the animal from the comparatively brittle Ampullaria should require to 
bruise the more hard and solid shell of the Unio .” Although shellfish form the main food of the Shell-Ibis, 
as all its native names testify, it will eat frogs and fish, but will not live long in confinement, writes Lieut. 
Bingham, if kept long on an exclusively fish diet. This writer also says that at night they utter a curious 
laughing chattering noise, with frequent clatterings of the bill. These birds are caught, according to an 
informant of Dr. Jerdon, by means of a bamboo with a noose attached, which is bent down and fixed lightly 
in the ground by a small peg, to which an Ampullaria is fixed. “ The Shell-eater hunting about finds the 
shell, and moving it to get at its contents the peg is withdrawn, the bamboo flies up, and the noose catches 
the bird, which remains dangling in mid air.” 
Nidification . — The Shell-Ibis breeds in the south of Ceylon in January, February, and March. I found 
them nesting inconsiderable numbers at Uduwila tank; but at the time of my visit the young were all 
hatched and some of them well grown. The nests were large flat structures of sticks, the egg-platforms being 
lined with small twigs and roots ; they were placed in the same trees with the nests of the last species. The 
old birds flew up into the air, mounted to a great height, circling round and round like Herring-Gulls, and 
frequently descended from a great altitude with a terrific rush and booming noise of the wing until they 
almost touched the trees, from which the momentum of their heavy bodies enabled them to mount again in 
the same swoop. Beyond this they showed no sign of defending their nests. Layard refers to the assertion 
of the natives that these birds “ defended their nests with such pertinacity that they feared to mount to 
them.” This of course was nothing more than the common excuse made by the country people on all such 
occasions. 
In India this species breeds in July and August, great numbers repairing to the Central Ganges, Doab, 
for this purpose. They build on lofty Peepul- and Neem -trees, on which occasionally as many as sixty-two 
nests may be seen. They are repaired year after year, and are circular platforms about 20 inches in diameter, 
with a shallow depression in the centre, which is sometimes lined with tufts of grass or a few leaves. The 
eggs vary in number from 2 to 5, and are at first pure white, becoming afterwards stained to a deep yellowish- 
brown colour ; they are oval in shape, the average size of two specimens being 2‘2 inches in length by 149 
in breadth ( Bingham ) . A large series vary, according to Mr. Hume, from 2-0 to 2 , 52 inches in length, and 
from 1-48 to 1-82 in breadth. 
