John James Audubon Leipzig Ed.Glossy Ibis Print Lithograph Engraving 1972 Germany Birds of America Collection

The first intimation of the existence of this beautiful species of Ibis within the limits of the United States is due to Mr. GEORGE ORD of Philadelphia, the friend and companion of the celebrated ALEXANDER WILSON. It was described by him in the first volume of the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He states that "on the seventh of May of the present year (1817), Mr. THOMAS SAY received from Mr. ORAM, of Great Egg Harbour, a fine specimen of Tantalus, which had been shot there. It is the first instance which has come to my knowledge of this species having been found in the United States. I was informed that a recent specimen of this bird was, likewise in the month of May, presented to the Baltimore Museum, and that two individuals were killed in the district of Columbia." In the sequel Mr. ORD compares it with Dr. LATHAM'S account of the Tantalus Mexicanus of that author, and conjectures that it is the same. 

It is not a little curious to see the changes of opinion that have taken place within these few years among naturalists who have thought of comparing American and European specimens of the birds which have been alleged to be the same in both continents. The Prince of MUSIGNANO, for example, who has given a figure of the very individual mentioned by Mr. ORD, thought at the time when he published the fourth volume of his continuation of WILSON'S American Ornithology, that our Glossy Ibis was the one described by the older European writers under the name of Ibis Falcinellus. Now, however, having altered his notions so far as to seem desirous of proving that the same species of bird cannot exist on both the continents, he has latterly produced it anew under the name of Ibis Ordi. This new name I cannot with any degree of propriety adopt. I consider it no compliment to the discoverer of a bird to reject the name which he has given it, even for the purpose of calling it after himself. 

The Glossy Ibis is of exceedingly rare occurrence in the United States, where it appears only at long and irregular intervals, like a wanderer who has lost his way. It exists in Mexico, however, in vast numbers. In the spring of 1837, I saw flocks of it in Texas; but even there it is merely a summer resident, associating with the White Ibis, along the grassy margins of the rivers and bayous, and apparently going to and returning from its roosting places in the interior of the country. Its flight resembles that of its companion, the White Ibis, and it is probable that it feeds on the same kinds of crustaceous animals, and breeds on low bushes in the same great associations as that species, but we unfortunately had no opportunity of verifying this conjecture. Mr. NUTTALL, in his Ornithology of the United States and Canada, says that "a specimen has occasionally been exposed for sale in the market of Boston." 

I have given the figure of a male bird in superb plumage, procured in Florida, near a wood-cutter's cabin, a view of which is also given. 

IBIS FALCINELLUS, Bonap. Syn., p. 312. 
BAY OR GLOSSY IBIS, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 88. 
GLOSSY IBIS, Ibis Falcinellus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 608. 

Male, 25, 42; wing, 11 1/4. 

Rare or accidental in the Middle Atlantic Districts; more common in South Florida and Texas, where it breeds. Rarely seen far inland. Migratory.