File:The birds of America - from drawings made in the United States and their territories (1840) (14565090429).jpg

Identifier: birdsofamericafr06audu (find matches)
Title: The birds of America : from drawings made in the United States and their territories
Year: 1840 (1840s)
Authors: Audubon, John James, 1785-1851 Bowen, John T., ca. 1801-1856?, lithographer
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: New York : Published by J.J. Audubon Philadelphia : J.B. Chevalier
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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. Young in first plumage with the bill andfeet brownish-grey, the bare parts of the head pale flesh-colour; plumage ofhead, neck, and upper parts, brownish-grey, of lower, white. THE WHITE IBIS. + Ibis alba, Linn. PLATE CCCLX.—Adult Male and Young. Sandy Island is remarkable as a breeding-place for various species ofwater and land birds. It is about a mile in length, not more than a hundredyards broad, and in form resembles a horse-shoe, the inner curve of whichlooks toward Cape Sable in Florida, from which it is six miles distant. Atlow water, it is surrounded to a great distance by mud-flats abounding infood for wading and swimming birds, while the plants, the fruits, and theinsects of the island itself, supply many species that are peculiar to the land.Besides the White Ibis, we found breeding there the Brown Pelican, thePurple, the Louisiana, the White, and the Green Herons, two species ofGallinule, the Cardinal Grosbeak, Crows, and Pigeons. The vegetation con- JO » \^J I \ Urn
Text Appearing After Image:
Go < O THE WHITE IBIS. 55 sists of a few tall mangroves, thousands of wild plum trees, several species ofcactus, some of them nearly as thick as a mans body, and more than twentyfeet high, different sorts of smilax, grape-vines, cane, palmettoes, Spanishbayonets, and the rankest nettles I ever saw,—all so tangled together, that Ileave you to guess how difficult it was for my companions and myself toforce a passage through them in search of birds nests, which, however, weeffected, although the heat was excessive, and the stench produced by thedead birds, putrid eggs, and the natural effluvia of the Ibises, was scarcelysuflerable. But then, the White Ibis was there, and in thousands; and,although I already knew the bird, I wished to study its manners once more,that I might be enabled to present you with an account of them, which I nowproceed to do,—endeavouring all the while to forget the pain of the nume-rous scratches and lacerations of my legs caused by the cactuses of SandyIs

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