40 
GLOSSY IBIS. 
spring season at very irregular periods, on the coasts of the middle 
states. The specimen Mr. Ord described, and which produced a 
strong sensation even among experienced gunners and the oldest 
inhabitants as a novelty, was shot on the seventh of May, 1817, 
at Great Egg Harbour, and we have seen others from the same 
locality and obtained at the same season, as also from Maryland 
and Virginia. A beautiful specimen preserved in the American 
Museum at New York, was shot a few miles from that city in 
June, 1828. In central Italy they arrive periodically about the 
middle of April, or the beginning of May, and pass a month 
among us, after which they disappear entirely, and a pair of the 
Glossy Ibis is of very rare occurrence, though they have been 
known to remain here so late as August. A few pairs are brought 
every year in spring to the market of Rome, and in Tuscany and 
near Genoa they are more plentiful. The Italian and United 
States specimens that have come under my observation were all 
adults. During their stay among us they occupy places near 
marshes and grounds subject to be overflowed, where there are 
no trees, but abundance of grass, and plenty of their favourite 
food. They search for this collected in flocks of from thirty to 
forty, and they explore the ground with great regularity, advanc¬ 
ing in an extended line, but closely side by side : when they wish 
to leave one side of the meadow for another, they do not take 
wing, but walk to the selected spot. When they have alighted 
on a newly discovered rich spot of ground, they may be observed 
on it for hours, continually boring the mud with their bill. They 
never start and run rapidly like the Curlew and Sandpiper, but 
always walk with poised and measured steps, so that iElian says 
the Ibis’s motions can only be compared to those of a delicate 
virgin. The body is kept almost horizontal, the neck much bent, 
like the letter S, and lifting their feet high. If alarmed, or when 
about to depart, they rise to wonderful heights, ascending first in 
