. Key to North American birds; containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary. Illustrated by 6 steel plates and upwards of 250 woodcuts. Birds. ^ TANTALIDyE, IBISES, SPOONBILLS. — GEN. 224, 225-6. 2G3 at base, the hinder lengthened and inserted low down, as in storks and herons (not cranes) ; middle claw not pectinate as in the herons. Chiefljr lacustrine and palus- trine inhabitants of the warmer parts of the globe, feeding on iish, reptiles and Other animals. The sexes are alike; the


. Key to North American birds; containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary. Illustrated by 6 steel plates and upwards of 250 woodcuts. Birds. ^ TANTALIDyE, IBISES, SPOONBILLS. — GEN. 224, 225-6. 2G3 at base, the hinder lengthened and inserted low down, as in storks and herons (not cranes) ; middle claw not pectinate as in the herons. Chiefljr lacustrine and palus- trine inhabitants of the warmer parts of the globe, feeding on iish, reptiles and Other animals. The sexes are alike; the young dilferent. The manifest modification of the bill is the principal external character of the three subfamilies into which the group is divisible. SuhfamAly TANTALINJE. Wood Ibises. Bill long, extremely stout at base, where it is as broad as the face, gradually tapering to the decarved tip, withont nasal groove or membrane, the nostrils directly perforating its substance. One genus and three or four species of America, Africa, Southern Asia, ^ and part of the East Indies. '' ,_,^- 224. Genus TANTALUS Linnaeus. ^~- ^'i Wood Ibis. Adult with head and ^"^•^''- ^^'°°"i^'«- part of the neck naked, corrugate, bluish; legs blue; bill pale greenish; plumage entirely white, excepting the quills, tail, primary coverts and alula, which are glossy black; young with the head downy-feathered, the plumage dark gray, the quills aud tail blackish; about 4 feet long; wing 18-20 inches; bill 8-9; tarsus 7-8. Wooded swampy places in the Southern states, N. to Ohio and the Carolinas, W. to the Colorado, abundant; grega- rious; nests in trees and bushes. WiLS., viii, 39, pi. 66; Nutt., ii, 82; Aud., vi, G4, pi. 361; Bd., 682 loculator. Subfamily IBIDINJE. Ibises. Bill long, very slender, curved throughout, and grooved nearly or quite to the tip (thus closely resembling a curlew's). There are about twenty species of ibises, among which minor details of form vary consideraltly, n


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1872