GLOSSY IBIS. 
ORA LLA TORES. 
» 
OS) 1 
oA 1 
ARDEIDjR. 
GLOSSY IBIS. 
Ibis falcinellus. 
PLATE LXXXVI. 
Although several eggs, said fco be those of this spe¬ 
cies, have been added to our collections, I was unwilling 
to figure one from authority which appeared to me in¬ 
sufficient to warrant their being genuine, until they were 
pronounced to be so by Dr. Thienemann during a visit to 
this country. They have none of the characters of the 
eggs of the Scolopacidce , which one would look for in 
the eggs of a bird so closely connected with them, with 
the exception of sometimes tapering to the smaller end 
rather more than the eggs of the Ardeidse; whilst on 
the other hand, where one would not expect to see much 
likeness, they closely resemble in colour those of the 
heron tribe. Mr. J. Hancock, however, who has ob¬ 
served the living Ibis, tells me that they are very 
heron-like in some of their habits, and the positions 
in which they put themselves; the Ibis, it has also 
been said, breeds in trees like the heron. The figure 
is from an egg in the collection of Mr. Wilmot. 
