56 
THE WHITE IBIS. 
disturbed, for they almost allow you to toucli them on the nest. The females 
are silent all the while, but the mates evince their displeasure by uttering 
sounds which greatly resemble those of the White-headed Pigeon, and which 
may be imitated by the syllables crook , croo, croo. The report of a gun 
scarcely alarms them at first, although at all other periods these birds are 
shy and vigilant in the highest degree. 
The change in the colouring of the bill, legs, and feet of this bird, that 
takes place in the breeding-season, is worthy of remark, the bill being then 
of a deep orange-red, and the legs and feet of a red nearly amounting to 
carmine. The males at this season have the gular pouch of a rich orange- 
colour, and somewhat resembling in shape that of the Frigate Pelican, 
although proportionally less. During winter, these parts are of a dull flesh- 
colour. The irides also lose much of their clear blue, and resume in some 
degree the umber colour of the young birds. I am thus particular in these 
matters, because it is doubtful if any one else has ever paid attention to 
them. 
While breeding, the White Ibises go to a great distance in search of food 
for their young, flying in flocks of several hundreds. Their excursions take 
place at particular periods, determined by the decline of the tides, when all 
the birds that are not sitting go off, perhaps twenty or thirty miles, to the 
great mud flats, where they collect abundance of food, with which they 
return the moment the tide begins to flow. As the birds of this genus feed 
by night as well as by day, the White Ibis attends the tides at whatever hour 
they may be. Some of those which bred on Sandy Key would go to the 
keys next the Atlantic, more than forty miles distant, while others made for 
the everglades ; but they never went off singly. They rose with common 
accord from the breeding-ground, forming themselves into long lines, often 
a mile in extent, and soon disappearing from view. Soon after the turn of 
the tide we saw them approaching in the same order. Not a note could 
you have heard on those occasions ; yet if you disturb them when far from 
their nests, they utter loud hoarse cries resembling the syllables hunk , hunk , 
hunk , either while on the ground or as they fly off. 
The flight of the White Ibis is rapid and protracted. Like all other- 
species of the genus, these birds pass through the air with alternate flappings 
and sailings ; and I have thought that the use of either mode depended upon 
the leader of the flock, for, with the most perfect regularity, each individual 
follows the motion of that preceding it, so that a constant appearance of 
regular undulations is produced through the whole line. If one is shot al 
this time, the whole line is immediately broken up, and for a few minutes 
all is disorder ; but as they continue their course, they soon resume their 
former arrangement. The wounded bird never attempts to bite or to defend 
