98 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
side of breast, bill largely pale yellow; lores and bare skin about eyes greenish, iris 
and toes yellow, legs green or yellowish. Adult female: Back mainly brown, with 
two light stripes; underparts striped. Young in Juvenal plumage: Like adult female, 
but feathers of back and shoulders tipped with buff. 
Range. Breeds in southern Canada, the United States and Central America, 
fi om Oregon, North Dakota, southern Ontario, and New Brunswick south to Guate¬ 
mala, Mexico and Lower California; winters from Arizona, Florida, islands of the 
Caribbean Sea and Central and South America south to Patagonia. 
State Records. 1 he summer home of the Least Bittern includes the northern 
half of the eastern United States west to Kansas and Nebraska and also the con¬ 
tiguous parts of southern Canada. It also breeds in the Gulf States west to the 
mouth of the Rio Grande, in Mexico, and rarely in California and Oregon. Thus 
its breeding range surrounds New Mexico, but the species is almost entirely absent 
as a breeder from the whole Rocky Mountain region and is very rare there as a 
migrant or wanderer. The first record for New Mexico is that of a specimen sent 
to Washington by Doctor Henry, who says that he saw four or five in the summer 
of 1854 near Fort Thorn. [At the Rio Grande Gun Club Lake, one was seen June 
16, 1919, and several years previous one was seen at Palomas Plot Springs on the 
Rio Grande (Ligon). At Silver City one was taken, September 30, 1926 (Kel¬ 
logg).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. In fresh-water swamps and marshes, in reeds, cat-tails, or low bushes, 
usually over water, a platform of reeds or twigs. Eggs: 3 to 6, bluish or greenish 
white. 
Food. Frogs, tadpoles, water lizards, minnows, crawfish, snails, slugs, leeches, 
woims, grasshoppers, dragon flies, beetles, marsh insects, water scorpions, and 
occasionally shrews and field mice. 
General Habits. The Least Bittern with its disguising brown and 
green plumage might easily be overlooked because of its small size, 
shyness, and secretive habits. While it is sometimes seen flying low 
over the marshes, it usually hides in the long grass or reeds, climbing 
fiom stalk to stalk as it gets its food of insects and small aquatic animals. 
Additional Literature.—Allen, A. A., Bird-Lore, XVII, 425-430, 1915.— 
Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 135, 84-93, 1926.— Chapman, F. M., Bird 
“ es w A lth a Camera > 62-75,1900 (nesting).— Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaflet 
1911 at ASS0C Audubon Soc -—W illett, G., and A. Jay, Condor, XIII, 157, 159, 
STORKS AND WOOD IBISES: Family Ciconiidae 
Storks and Wood Ibises have very stout bills, the upper mandible 
not grooved. The plumage is without powder-down tracts. 
WOOD IBISES: Subfamily Mycteriinae 
WOOD IBIS: Mycteria americ£na Linnaeus 
Bssemmas.—Length: 35-45 inches, wing 17.6-19.5, bill 6.1-7.3, tarsus 
7 S.5. Basal half of bill straight, tip declined; whole head and back of neck bare 
less in female, mostly feathered in young). Adults: Plumage mainly white, but bald 
Head hmd bluish and yellowish; wing quills and tail black, with metallic reflections; 
ins dark brown or dark red, legs blue, toes blackish, webs yellowish. Young in first 
