184. Guara alba. 25 in.
Tips of primaries black; plumage, otherwise, entirely white; bill, face and legs, orange red or carmine. Young with head and neck, and more or less of the body, brownish or streaked with brown. White Ibises are very abundant in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, breeding in immense rookeries in remote swamps, placing their frail platforms in bushes over the water or sometimes weaving nests out of rushes, attached to upright canes and brake. These rookeries are very untidy and offensive to human beings, and millions and millions of black flies and mosquitoes will be encountered by any who wish to investigate the breeding places of these birds.
Notes.—A loud, harsh croak.
Nest.—Of twigs in bushes, or of rushes in the tangle and brake of marshes; 3 or 4 whitish eggs, handsomely spotted and splashed with brownish.
Range.—Breeds north to South Carolina and Southern Ill. Winters from the Gulf States southward.
SCARLET IBIS
185. Guara rubra. 25 in.
This beautiful species is wholly bright scarlet, except for the black primaries; young birds are found in all stages of plumage from the brownish-gray and white of the first year birds, to the full plumage of the adults.
This is a tropical ibis that abounds in northern South America, but is yearly decreasing in numbers, owing to the persistency with which they are hunted, their feathers being much in demand for tying trout flies, as well as for decorating hats, a barbarous practice that is being stopped in this country, by legislation and public sentiment.