Plate CCXVI. Male.
Head all round, and hind neck half-way down, destitute of feathers,
the skin wrinkled and covered with irregular scurfy scales; bill
dusky yellowish-brown, sides of head dark bluish-purple, upper part
of head horn-colour; legs indigo-blue; toes yellowish, with the
scutella black; plumage white, tinged with yellow; alula, primary
coverts, primary and secondary quills, excepting the inner, and tail,
black, with green and purplish-blue reflections. Young dusky grey all
over, the quills and tail brown and black, the head covered with down.
_Male_, 44-1/2, 62; bill, 9.
Resident from Texas to North Carolina, in deep woody swamps; or
fresh-water lakes, not on the sea-shores; breeds on trees in swamps;
moves in large flocks. Up the Mississippi to Natchez. Abundant in
Florida and Lower Louisiana.
Wood Ibis, Tantalus Loculator, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p.
39.
Tantalus Loculator, Bonap. Syn. p. 310.
Wood Ibis, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 82.
Wood Ibis, Tantalus Loculator, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 128.
GENUS III. PLATALEA, Linn. SPOONBILL.
Bill very long, excessively depressed, being, when viewed laterally,
very slender; but, when seen from above, nearly as broad as the head
at the base, considerably contracted in the middle, and at the end
expanded into a large obovate disk much broader than the head; upper
mandible with the dorsal line almost straight, at the tip decurved,
the ridge extremely broad and flat, gradually widening beyond the
nostrils, at the end terminated by the very small, decurved, blunt
unguis, the sides declinate at the base, horizontally flattened
towards the end, separated in their whole length from the ridge by a
narrow groove, their margins soft and blunt; lower mandible with the
angle very long, narrow, rounded, the coma narrow, and gradually
flattened, the extremity expanded into a flattened disk, as in the
upper; both mandibles covered with soft skin, which, for half their
length, is rough, with roundish plates, having their anterior margin
somewhat prominent. Nostrils basal, oblong-linear, of moderate size.
Head of moderate size, flattened above; neck long and slender; body
compact, ovate; legs long and rather stout; tibia bare in its lower
half, and reticulate; tarsus rather long, stout, roundish, covered all
round with subhexagonal scales; toes rather long, moderately stout,
scutellate, at the base reticulate; first more slender, articulated at
the same level, second considerably shorter than third. Claws
moderate, arched, compressed, laterally grooved, rather obtuse. Head,
gular sac, and a small part of neck, destitute of feathers. Wings long
and very broad, the second quill longest. Tail short, even, of twelve
rather broad feathers. Tongue extremely small, broader than long;
gular sac dilatable; œsophagus wide, with a dilatation at the lower
part of the neck; proventriculus bulbiform; stomach a powerful
gizzard, roundish, with large muscular fasciculi not disposed into
distinct muscles, the epithelium very thick, longitudinally fissured;
intestine very long, of moderate width; cœca two slight knobs.