64 
WHITE IBIS. 
One of them, which lived for some time in the Museum of 
this city, was dexterous at catching flies, and most usually 
walked about, on that pursuit, in the position in which it is 
represented in the plate. 
The scarlet ibis measures twenty-three inches in length, 
and thirty-seven in extent ; the bill is five inches long, thick, 
and somewhat of a square form at the base, gradually bent 
downwards, and sharply ridged, of a black colour, except near 
the base, where it inclines to red ; irides, dark hazel ; the 
naked face is finely wrinkled, and of a pale red ; chin, also 
bare and wrinkled for about an inch ; whole plumage, a rich 
glowing scarlet, except about three inches of the extremities 
of the four outer quill feathers, which are of a deep steel blue ; 
legs and naked part of the thighs, pale red, the three anterior 
toes united by a membrane as far as the first joint. 
Whether the female differs, in the colour of her plumage, 
from the male, or what changes both undergo during the first 
and second years, I am unable to say from personal observa- 
tion. Being a scarce species with us, and only found on our 
most remote southern shores, a sufficient number of specimens 
have not been procured, to enable me to settle this matter 
with sufficient certainty. 
WHITE IBIS— TANTALUS ALBUS— Plate. LXVI. Fig. 3. 
Le Courly blanc du Bresil, Briss. v. p. 339, 10. — Buff. viii. p. 41. — White 
Curlew, Catesby, i. pi. 82. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. Ill, No. 9. — Arct. Zool. No. 
363. 
IBIS ALBA.—'Wiewlot. 
Ibis alba, Wagl. Syst. Av. No. h.—Bonap. Synop. p. 312. 
This species bears in every respect, except that of colour, 
so strong a resemblance to the preceding, that I have been 
almost induced to believe it the same, in its white or imper- 
fect stage of colour. The length and form of the bill, the size, 
conformation, as well as colour of the legs, the general length 
and breadth, and even the steel blue on the four outer quill 
feathers, are exactly alike in both. These suggestions, how- 
