(THE WOOD-IBIS.)
+Tantalus loculator+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 510 (Rio
Paraná); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 126; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884,
p. 272 (Entrerios); _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i.
p. 81.
_Description._--Plumage white, greater wing-coverts and wing- and
tail-feathers black with bronzy reflexions; head and upper half of
neck naked, dusky; vertex covered with a horny plate; bill yellowish
brown; sides of head purplish; feet bluish: whole length 44·0
inches, wing 17·0, tail 6·0. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ North and South America.
Most people in the Plata region are familiar with this bird of the
marshes, its lofty stork-like figure and white plumage making it a very
conspicuous object.
On the pampas it is not uncommon in summer and autumn, and goes in
flocks of a dozen or twenty. The birds are usually seen standing
motionless in groups or scattered about in spiritless attitudes,
apparently dozing away the time. On the wing it appears to better
advantage, having a singularly calm stately flight; on a warm still day
they are often seen soaring in circles very far up in the sky.
I have never heard of this bird nesting on the pampas, and am inclined
to think that it only breeds in forest-regions, and visits the marshes
in the treeless districts after the young have flown.
Its habits in North America, where it is called the "Wood-Ibis," are
tolerably well known, and in the ornithological works of that country
it is described as "a hermit standing listless and alone on the topmost
limb of some tall decayed cypress, its neck drawn in upon its shoulders,
and its enormous bill resting like a scythe upon its breast."
It there nests on tall trees, sometimes in company with Egrets, and lays
three white eggs.
Fam. XXXVII. PLATALEIDÆ, or IBISES.
The Spoonbills and Ibises constitute a homogeneous family of Herodiones,
which have a wide distribution over the earth's surface, although mostly
prevalent within intertropical limits. They fall naturally into two
groups--the Ibises, distinguished by their elongated, compressed, and
sickle-shaped bills; and the Spoonbills, at once known by the peculiar
form of the same organ, which is much expanded at its termination.
Of about twenty-five known species of Ibises, the Neotropical Region
possesses eight or nine, and of these four occur in Argentina. Of the
Spoonbills only one is Neotropical, and that is met with throughout the
southern portion of South America.