WOOD IBIS. 
Ill 
Cayenne and Brazil, and in other parts of South America. In 
the compass of the United States their principal residence is 
in the inundated wilds of the peninsula of East Florida, and 
they are not uncommon in Mississippi, Alabama, Carolina, 
and Georgia, withdrawing from the north, however, at the 
commencement of cold weather or about the month of 
November. 
According to Bartram, who had many opportunities of ob- 
serving them in Florida, they are solitary and indolent birds, 
seldom associating in flocks, and usually frequent the banks 
of the principal rivers, marshes, and savannahs, especially such 
as are inundated, as well as the larger deserted rice-planta- 
tions contiguous to the sea-coast. Here, alone, the feathered 
hermit stands listless, on the topmost limb of some tall and 
decayed cypress, with his neck drawn in upon his shoulders, 
and his enormous bill resting like a scythe upon his breast. 
Thus pensive and lonely, he has a grave and melancholy as- 
pect, as if ruminating in the deepest thought ; and in this sad 
posture of gluttonous inactivity these birds probably, like 
Herons, pass the greatest part of their time, till, awakened by 
*^he calls of hunger, they become active in quest of their prey 
of snakes, young alligators, fish, frogs, and other reptiles. 
They are easily approached and shot, when abandoned to 
tepose, and are by many of the inhabitants accounted as 
excellent food. 
This Ibis is found in all the Southern States, though at present 
d is not a common bird anywhere within our borders. Stragglers 
have been met with north to New York, Ohio, Indiana, and 
Wisconsin. 
Bartram’s account of the hermit-like habits of the bird, quoted 
y Nuttall, was criticised by Aubudon, who rarely met with a soli- 
example, — the birds were always in flocks; but Dr. Henry 
oryant states that he never saw a flock of Wood Ibises excepting 
at their breeding-place. The principal food of this species is small 
^^sh, which are caught in the shallow waters, the Ibis scratching or 
raking ” the bottom to startle its prey; but a meal of frog, turtle, 
ra, or snake is never neglected, and a young alligator is not safe 
"'hhin reach of the bird’s long and powerful bill. 
