Hab. South-east Brazil and Argentina.
This noble Ibis ranges from Brazil, south of the Amazons, to the pampas of Buenos Ayres. It is a bird of the marshes, nowhere abundant, and yet is exceedingly well known to most people in the Argentine country: it would be difficult indeed to overlook a species possessing so peculiar and powerful a voice. In the vernacular it is called Vanduria, with the addition of aplomado, or barroso, or de las lagunas, to distinguish it from the Winter Vanduria. The word is also frequently spelt Manduria or Banduria, but it does not come from Bandada (flock), as Mr. Barrows imagines when he gives this vernacular name to the Glossy Ibis; but from the Spanish stringed instrument called Vanduria. Possibly the instrument is obsolete now; not so the word, however, and it is sometimes used by the poets, instead of “harp” or “lyre,” to symbolize poetic inspiration. Thus Iriarte:—
“Atencion! que la vanduria he templado.”
If one could get a banjo with brass strings so big that it could be heard a mile and a half away, a dozen strokes dealt in swift succession on one string would produce a sound resembling the call of this Ibis—a voice of the desolate marshes, which competes in power with the outrageous human-like shrieks of the Ypecaha Rail, the long resounding wails of the Crazy Widow or Courlan, and the morning song of the Crested Screamer.
The Vanduria is usually seen singly or in pairs, and sometimes, but rarely, in small companies of half a dozen birds. In its habits it is like a Tantalus, wading in the shallow water of the marshes, and devouring eels, frogs, fish, &c. After examining the well-filled stomachs of a few individuals, one is strongly tempted to believe that the beautiful long beak of this Ibis has “forgotten its cunning” as a probe. At intervals in the daytime it utters, standing on the ground, its resonant metallic cry. It is wary and has a strong easy flight, and is a great wanderer, but I am not able to say whether it possesses a regular migration or not.
The celebrated naturalist Natterer procured specimens of this Ibis in the lagoons of Caiçara, in the Brazilian Province of Matogrosso, in September and November, 1825, but it is not mentioned by general writers on the birds of S.E. Brazil.
[330.] PHIMOSUS INFUSCATUS (Licht.).
(WHISPERING IBIS.)
Ibis infuscata, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 511 (Rio Paraná). Phimosus infuscatus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 127; Durnford, Ibis, 1878, p. 63 (Buenos Ayres); Salv. Ibis, 1880, p. 363 (Salta); Elliot, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 495.
Description.—Plumage dark bronzy green, glossed with purple; fore part and sides of head and neck naked, red; bill and feet red: whole length 24·0 inches, wing 11·5, tail 6·0, bill 5·2. Female similar.