eight feet into the air, coming down on the other side of his enemy and there repeating his war dance; while he always threatened (though his threats were never fulfilled) to make personal and pointed remarks with his formidable bill. "Shortly after his capture feathers began to appear; and the following is a description of the bird at the age of about two months:--Tail-feathers white, remainder of plumage glossy green-black; bill black; legs and feet grey. Spots and patches of white began to appear on head, back, and wings; these gradually extended, until, by the end of May, the adult plumage was all acquired. Then my interest in Byles ceased, and latterly he strayed away to his native swamps." 326. TANTALUS LOCULATOR, Linn. (THE WOOD-IBIS.) +Tantalus loculator+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 510 (Rio Paraná); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 126; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 272 (Entrerios); _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 81. _Description._--Plumage white, greater wing-coverts and wing- and tail-feathers black with bronzy reflexions; head and upper half of neck naked, dusky; vertex covered with a horny plate; bill yellowish brown; sides of head purplish; feet bluish: whole length 44·0 inches, wing 17·0, tail 6·0. _Female_ similar. _Hab._ North and South America. Most people in the Plata region are familiar with this bird of the marshes, its lofty stork-like figure and white plumage making it a very conspicuous object. On the pampas it is not uncommon in summer and autumn, and goes in flocks of a dozen or twenty. The birds are usually seen standing motionless in groups or scattered about in spiritless attitudes, apparently dozing away the time. On the wing it appears to better advantage, having a singularly calm stately flight; on a warm still day they are often seen soaring in circles very far up in the sky. I have never heard of this bird nesting on the pampas, and am inclined to think that it only breeds in forest-regions, and visits the marshes in the treeless districts after the young have flown. Its habits in North America, where it is called the "Wood-Ibis," are tolerably well known, and in the ornithological works of that country it is described as "a hermit standing listless and alone on the topmost limb of some tall decayed cypress, its neck drawn in upon its shoulders, and its enormous bill resting like a scythe upon its breast." It there nests on tall trees, sometimes in company with Egrets, and lays three white eggs. Fam. XXXVII. PLATALEIDÆ, or IBISES.