36 
GLOSSY IBIS. 
distances. The habit of resting upon trees, as indeed the whole 
animal economy (a thing never sufficiently considered in the 
formation of natural families,) of the Ibis separate them from the 
Scolopacidae. They are monogamous ; build on high trees, both 
sexes assisting in the construction of the nest: the female lays 
two or three whitish eggs, which she alone incubates, but is then 
fed by the male, and both feed the young, which require for a 
long period the care of the parents, and do not leave the nest till 
able to flutter. They walk slowly, often sinking deeply in the 
mud while watching for prey: their gait is measured, and they 
never run rapidly. Their flight is heavy, but high and protracted. 
Their voice is loud and monotonous. In domesticity, like many 
other birds, they become omnivorous. As to anatomical con¬ 
formation, the Ibises resemble the genera of Scolopacidae: a very 
thick muscular stomach occupies nearly two-thirds of the anterior 
capacity of the abdomen : the swelling of the oesophagus at its 
origin is considerable and very glandulous: the intestines form 
an elliptic mass, composed of a double spiral, besides first a turn 
bordering the gizzard; they measure upwards of three feet in 
length in the species we treat of. There are two rather short 
and obtuse csecums. 
The Bay or Glossy Ibis is twenty-six inches in length, and 
more than three feet in extent. The bill is of a greenish lead 
colour, somewhat reddish at tip, and varies much in length in 
different specimens,—the longest we have measured was five and 
a half inches from the corners of the mouth : in many it is but 
four inches : it is slender, thicker at base, and higher than broad, 
rather compressed and obtusely rounded at tip, and less arcuated 
than in the other North American species ; the upper mandible 
is somewhat longer than the lower, thickened and subangulated at 
base, and flattened at its origin: two deep furrows run from the 
nostrils to the extremity, dividing it into three portions; the edges 
