40 
WOOD IBIS. 
from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs, and other 
reptiles.”* 
The figure of this bird given in the plate was drawn from a 
very fine specimen, sent from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, esq., of 
Beaufort, South Carolina ; its size and markings were as follow : 
Length three feet two inches ; bill nearly nine inches long, 
straight for half its length, thence curving downwards to the ex- 
tremity, and full two inches thick at the base, where it rises high 
in the head, the whole of a brownish horn color ; the under man- 
dible fits into the upper in its whole length, and both are very 
sharp edged ; face and naked head, and part of the neck, dull 
greenish blue, wrinkled ; eye large, seated high in the head ; irides 
dark red ; under the lower jaw is a loose corrugated skin, or pouch, 
capable of containing about half a pint ; whole body, neck and 
lower parts, white; quills dark glossy green and purple; tail about 
two inches shorter than the wings, even at the end, and of a deep 
and rich violet ; legs and naked thighs dusky green ; feet and toes 
yellowish, sprinkled with black ; feet almost semipalmated, and 
bordered to the claws with a narrow membrane ; some of the 
greater wing-coverts are black at the root, and shafted with black ; 
plumage on the upper ridge of the neck generally worn, as in the 
present specimen, with rubbing on the back, while in its common 
position of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the White 
Ibis. (See fig. 3.) 
The female has only the head and chin naked ; both are sub- 
ject to considerable changes of color when young; the body being 
found sometimes blackish above, the belly cinereous, and spots of 
black on the wing-coverts ; all of which, as the birds advance in 
age, gradually disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, &c. 
as has been described. 
^ Travels, &c. p. 150. 
