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Show 492 MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE IBIDINSE. [June 5, fig. 1009, 1010; Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. (1857) vol. iii. p. 152; Gould, Handb. B. Austr. (1865) vol. ii. p. 282. Ibis strictipennis, Straw-throated Ibis, d'Albertis (quoted by Sclater), Ibis (1876) p. 361. Hab. Australia. New Guinea. This bird is peculiar among the members of this family in possessing the curious straw-coloured spines at the base of the neck in front, as though they were the stiffened shafts of feathers denuded of their webs and massed together. Both sexes apparently are thus adorned, though the spines are more slender and shorter in the female. This species is accustomed to congregate in immense flocks, and is seemingly distributed all over Australia; and, under the name of Ibis strictipennis, M . d'Albertis states that he saw it flying over him in N e w Guinea, of which country it is not at all unlikely to be an inhabitant. Head, throat, and upper part of neck in front bare, skin black. Feathers of neck short, downy, and end in a point at base of occiput. Sides of neck white, back of neck black, this colour gradually lessening in width as it proceeds towards the occiput. Front of neck and breast covered with short stiff straw-coloured spines, which fall over the breast in front. Back and upper part of breast bright bronze-green with rich purple reflections. Secondaries dark purplish brown, with bright purple bronze spots along the edge of outer webs. Shoulders metallic green, succeeded by a patch of metallic blue, the feathers crossed by narrow bars of velvet black. Greater wing-coverts, and outer webs of tertials, purple bronze. Tail and entire underparts pure white. Bill black. Thighs crimson, graduating into blackish brown on the tarsi. Immature birds have not the spines at all, or only just commencing to show, and the green on the breast is divided by the white of the lower parts, which is extended up to the neck. Total length 32 inches ; wing 14j, tail 6-5, bill along culmen 6|, tarsus 3| inches. 7. INOCOTIS PAPILLOSUS. Ibis papillosa, Temm. Pl. Col. no. 304 ; Less. Trait. Orn. (1831) p. 568. sp. 12; Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1832) p. 162. sp. 190; Burgess, Proc. Zool. Soc. (lo57) p. 74 ; Schleg. Mus. Pays-B. (1863) livr. 4, p. 11. Ibis papillata, Wagl. Syst. Av. (1827) sp. 10 ; id. Isis (1829) p. 761. Inocotis papillosa, Reich. Nov. Syst. Av. (1851) pl. 140. fig. 533 ; Bon. Consp. Gen. Av. (1857) vol. iii. p. 153. Geronticus papillata, Wagl. Isis (1832) p. 1232. Geronticus papillosus, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. Asiat. Soc. (1849) p. 275. no. 1621 ; Gray, Gen. B. (1849) vol. iii. p. 567 ; Jerd. B. Ind. (1864) vol. iii. p. 769; Beavan, Ibis (1868) p. 400; Gray, Handl. B. (1871) pt. iii. p. 39. Hab. India generally (Blyth). Lieut. Burgess states that in the Deccan this species is much more |