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The Wood-Ibis.
(Tantalidae.)
The Wood-Ibises constitute a small branch of the Stork family which forms a link between the true Storks and true Ibises. The Ibises and Spoonbills are easily distinguished from the Storks by the fact that their beaks though hard at the tip, are soft for the greater part of their length, and are deeply grooved. The quaint Arabic name of the true IbisÑFather of the sickleÑrefers of course to its characteristic downward-curving beak. Like the Storks, Ibises feed on fish, reptiles, frogs, centipedes, shell-fish and worms. The Wood-Ibises are gregarious, and, as their name implies, place their nests in trees apart from the dwellings of man.