Photo by J. T. Newman] [Berkhamsted.
YOUNG HERONS FOURTEEN DAYS OLD IN NEST.
Photographed in the top of a pine-tree 60 feet from the ground, in Lord Clarendon's Park.
The Ibises, though much alike in form, are strangely diverse in colour. One species was sacred to the ancient Egyptians. The reverence and affection they showed to this bird, above all others, is probably largely due to its migrating habits, which obtained in that far past just as they do to-day. The naturalist Brehm says on this subject: "When the Nile, after being at its lowest ebb, rose again, and the water assumed a red tinge, then the ibis appeared in the land of the Pharaohs as a sure guarantee that the stream—the giver and preserver of life, which the people in their profound reverence raised to the rank of a god—would once again empty the well-spring of plenty over the thirsty land. The servant and messenger of an all-bounteous Deity commanded of a necessity a reverence of a poetic and distinguished character, by reason of its importance: he too must be a god."
Another species, the Glossy Ibis, occurs sometimes in Britain. Perhaps the most beautiful of all is the Scarlet Ibis of America, numbers of which can be seen in the Zoological Gardens of London. On account of the curved, sickle-shaped bill the Ibises were at one time believed to be related to the Curlews: this, however, is now known to be quite incorrect.
It was at one time believed that "the ibis [was] adopted as a part of the arms of the town of Liverpool. This bird is termed a Liver, from which that flourishing town derived its name, and is now standing on the spot where the Pool was, on the verge of which the Liver was killed." The arms of the town of Liverpool, however, as Mr. Howard Saunders points out, are "comparatively modern, and seem to have no reference to the ibis. The bird which was adopted in the arms of the [extinct] Earls of Liverpool was described in a former edition of 'Burke's Peerage' as a cormorant, holding in the beak a branch of seaweed. In the Plantagenet seal of Liverpool, which is believed to be of the time of King John, the bird has the appearance of a dove, bearing in its bill a sprig of olive, apparently intended to refer to the advantages that commerce would derive from peace."
The glossy ibis has been found breeding in colonies of thousands in Slavonia. The nests are large structures formed of sticks and a few weeds, never far from the water, and many even, in the colony referred to, were so near the surface that they appeared to be floating. The eggs, three or four in number, are of a beautiful greenish blue. The young, while still unable to fly, climb actively among the branches of the trees in which the nest is placed, clinging so firmly with the feet as to be removed with difficulty.
By permission of Professor Bumpus] [New York.
GREAT BLUE HERON.