66 
TIIE WOOD IBIS. 
Some old male has long marked you ; whether it has been with eye or with 
ear, no matter. The first stick your foot cracks, his hoarse voice sounds 
the alarm. Off they all go, battering down the bending canes with their 
powerful pinions, and breaking the smaller twigs of the trees, as they force 
a passage for themselves. 
Talk to me of the stupidity of birds, of the dulness of the Wood Ibis ! say 
it is fearless, easily approached, and easily shot. I listen, but it is merely 
through courtesy ; for I have so repeatedly watched its movements, in all 
kinds of circumstances, that I am quite convinced we have not in the United 
States a more shy, wary, and vigilant bird than the Wood Ibis. In the 
course of two years spent, I may say, among them, for I saw some when- 
ever I pleased during that period, I never succeeded in surprising one, not 
even under night, when they were roosting on trees at a height of nearly a 
hundred feet, and sometimes rendered farther secure by being over exten- 
sive swamps. 
My Journal informs me, that, one autumn while residing near Bayou 
Sara, being intent on procuring eight or ten of these birds, to skin for my 
learned and kind friend the Prince of Musighano, I took with me two 
servants, who were first-rate woodsmen, and capital hands at the rifle, and 
that notwithstanding our meeting with many hundreds of Wood Ibises, it 
took us three days to shoot fifteen, which were for the most part killed on 
wing with rifle-balls, at a distance of about a hundred yards. On that occa- 
sion we discovered that a flock roosted regularly over a large corn-field 
covered with huge girted trees, the tops of which were almost all decayed. 
We stationed ourselves apart in the field, concealed among the tall ripened 
corn, and in silence awaited the arrival of the birds. After the sun had dis- 
appeared, the broad front of a great flock of Ibises was observed advancing 
towards us. They soon alighted in great numbers on the large branches of 
the dead trees ; but whenever one of the branches gave way under their 
weight, all at once rose in the air, flew about several times, and alighted 
again. One of my companions, having a good opportunity, fired, and brought 
two down with a single bullet ; but here the sport was ended. In five 
minutes after, not an Ibis was within a mile of the place, nor did any return 
to roost there for more than a month. When on the margin of a lake, or 
even in the centre of it — for all the lakes they frequent are exceedingly 
shallow— the first glimpse they have of a man induces them to exert all their 
vigilance ; and should he after this advance a few steps, the birds fly off. 
The name of “ Wood Ibis” given to this bird, is not more applicable to it 
than to any other species ; for every one with which I am acquainted resorts 
quite as much to the woods at particular periods. All our species may bo 
found on wet savannahs, on islands surrounded even by the waters of the 
