. Three voyages of a naturalist, being an account of many little- known islands in three oceans visited by the "Valhalla," ; . thenbrought us to our destination, within half a mileof the place where the ibises were said to benesting. The ground here was of the same forma-tion as that in the neighbourhood of the settle-ment—a mass of ancient brown-coloured coralcovered with long grass and clumps of bushes. After a very few minutes walk we came on afew scattered pairs of Abbotts ibis feeding on themargin of a large pool of rain-water. I soon ob-tained a couple of old birds. Their necks, li
. Three voyages of a naturalist, being an account of many little- known islands in three oceans visited by the "Valhalla," ; . thenbrought us to our destination, within half a mileof the place where the ibises were said to benesting. The ground here was of the same forma-tion as that in the neighbourhood of the settle-ment—a mass of ancient brown-coloured coralcovered with long grass and clumps of bushes. After a very few minutes walk we came on afew scattered pairs of Abbotts ibis feeding on themargin of a large pool of rain-water. I soon ob-tained a couple of old birds. Their necks, likethose of the sacred ibis, were bare of feathers,and the skin was black and wrinkled; their eyeswere of a pale china-blue. We then came to amore open piece of country, covered with grassand intersected by narrow rivulets of water, inone of which were two young ibises. They wereridiculously tame, and allowed of such a nearapproach that several photographs of them weretaken without any difficulty. In a clump of fig trees, shortly afterwardsreached, the ibises were very numerous; manywere perched in the trees, while many more,. RIVER NEAR PORT VICTORIA, MAKE, SEYCHELLES.{Photographed by E. G. B. Meade-Waldo.) [121] MARVELLOUSLY TAME IBISES 121 chiefly full-grown young birds, were walking in apool of fresh water searching for food. In themiddle of the pool several were sitting togetheron a bare rock. They appeared to be tame enoughto photograph at close quarters, so I at onceunpacked my tripod camera and set it in position,using great care not to frighten the birds. Thisprecaution was, however, needless, for they werenot only quite fearless but so inquisitive that theywaded across the pool, and, coming close up to thecamera, began to peck at the tripod. We drovethem back to the rocks, but before a plate couldbe exposed they were back again inspecting thelegs of the camera; it was only by repeatedthreats—a novel experience for them and for us—that we could keep them far enoug
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworl
